A joint fight against the Centre to protect the federal rights of States. This was the message sent across by Chief Ministers of two non-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ruled States, Kerala’s Pinarayi Vijayan and Tamil Nadu’s M.K. Stalin, as they shared the stage at a seminar on ‘Centre-State relations’ organised as part of the 23rd party congress of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] here on Saturday.
The event had been news for the past few days, mainly due to the participation of Mr. Stalin, and the Congress party’s attempts to block its former Union Minister K.V. Thomas from attending it.
Opening the seminar, Mr. Vijayan said the BJP had been aggressively pursuing the neo-liberal policies initiated by the Congress. Surcharges and cess now amount to 15% of the Centre’s revenue receipts. However, these were not shared with the States. Financial freedom of States was being restricted.
