‘We can’t let Indian democracy which was envisaged as a ‘Union of States’ be crippled into a ‘Union over States’: Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan

In Delhi with his entire Cabinet and LDF MLAs and MPs to protest against the Centre over its fiscal policy towards states, Kerala Chief Minister and CPI(M) Politburo member talks about why his government was forced to take this step and why he sees no contradictions in the Left’s alliance with the Congress in INDIA. Excerpts from an email interview:

* The Left has always been on the warpath against the Union government and BJP. But this time the state’s entire ruling apparatus led by you was in Delhi to protest. You have also moved the Supreme Court against ‘discrimination’ by the Centre.

We are not on any warpath, we have cooperated effectively on various developmental projects and welfare schemes. At the same time, we have some serious concerns about the discrimination and injustice being meted out to Kerala, especially with regard to our finances.

It is not just Kerala, all Opposition-ruled states are facing such trouble. Ours is probably the severest. We have raised them (the issues) through various means, but they have fallen on deaf ears. That is why we had to approach the Supreme Court and why the state’s entire Cabinet, along with MPs and MLAs, had to protest in Delhi. That’s a first in the history of the Indian Republic…

We are discriminated against during disasters, in budgets, in transfer of funds, in the administration of projects and schemes, with regard to railway development… in calculating public debt and so on.

* There is a criticism that your protest was political and the real intention was to divert the attention of the people from the mishandling of the state economy by your government?

If that was the case, why did the government of Karnataka also protest? Why is it that several states have approached