How Kerala’s LDF govt is using an Opposition weapon to attack it instead

A strange shift is underway in the Kerala Assembly. Adjournment motions, once the Opposition’s sharpest weapon to embarrass and expose the government, are now being converted into opportunities by the ruling front itself to consolidate its position.

While it says something about the smart strategy of the Pinarayi Vijayan-led ruling LDF government, what it also exposes is the unpreparedness of the Congress-led UDF in the opposition. The latter has simply made it a habit of getting caught with its pants down in the assembly and then going the whole hog to vociferously defend its past actions.

The situation came to a ridiculous head last week when 85-year-old AK Antony, former chief minister of Kerala, who last held the seat more than two decades back in 2004, held a press conference to defend what he did way back then—simply because his party colleagues could not withstand the relentless attack they were subjected to from Pinarayi, who was replying to an adjournment motion in the Assembly they had brought in the first place.

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Defence to attack

The said adjournment motion last week was brought on the topic of police excesses. So, what would one expect? That the UDF benches would charge the government with arrogance of power, cite recent incidents of heavy-handed policing, and force the ruling front onto the defensive?

What unfolded was exactly the reverse. Pinarayi, rising to reply, reminded the House of a string of police atrocities during the previous Congress-led government’s rule instead, including the Muthanga firing of 2003, when Adivasi protesters were shot at, and of the Marad communal riots in 2002, where police inaction and political complicity had drawn national condemnation. Both happened during the tenure of Antony.

Instead of explaining what his government has done or is doing, he rattled off case after case from the Congress’s tenure, and transformed the discussion into a trial of the Opposition’s past.

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Explanation for two-decade-old events

KPCC president Sunny Joseph, who is also the MLA from Peravoor, summed up the events aptly. “Instead of addressing the issues at hand, the chief minister tried to mislead the House by dwelling on police atrocities from our tenure. He should not have dragged AK Antony into the debate, a leader who has always stood by facts,” he said.

Yet, sadly, the Congress thought an explanation from the octogenarian party veteran was in order. Therefore, Antony, the party’s most enduring elder statesman, felt compelled to call a news conference in Thiruvananthapuram to defend his tenure as chief minister even though he is no longer an everyday presence in party affairs.

That was not the end. The very next day, Health Minister Veena George meticulously rebutted each and every charge levelled against the state health department, in the discussion on another adjournment motion, this time on amoebic meningoencephalitis, leaving the Opposition only with the option of staging a walkout.

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Government 3, Opposition 0

On the third straight day of adjournment motions, this one on inflation, the Opposition appeared to be on a slightly more solid ground, as it could launch an attack on the government.

But that advantage too slipped away when Leader of the Opposition VD Satheesan accused Civil Supplies Minister GR Anil of lying, when he claimed that Satheesan himself had recently praised the department’s work. When a video clip confirming that praise surfaced, the Opposition leader was forced to retract his charge and apologise, blunting the force of his earlier attack.

Three days, three lost opportunities, and a sulking Opposition licking its wounds with its tail between its legs.

“It cannot be said that the adjournment motions were simply defused. The government was compelled to permit them because the Opposition had effectively highlighted its shortcomings,” Joseph said, trying to put up a brave face.

But the irony is hardly lost on the observer.

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Turning the tables

For most of Kerala Assembly’s history, adjournment discussions were rare. Only 17 such debates had ever been permitted before 2016. They were dramatic affairs, often ending in uproar and walkouts, with the Opposition claiming moral victory and the government seen as evasive.

But since Pinarayi took office in 2016, as many as 15 adjournment discussions have been allowed already. And yet, instead of holding him accountable for current controversies, the Congress-led UDF has been forced into the awkward posture of defending its own record from two or three decades back!

And that is where the LDF has won with its strategy and the UDF has failed—what was once a battlefield designed to expose the government is now a stage where the government sets the narrative.

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Risks of LDF strategy

Of course, this strategy is not without risks. Each accepted motion brings with it an obligation to answer. On issues like price rise or the recent deaths from amoebic meningoencephalitis, the government’s answers may not always satisfy. If the perception grows that debates are more about political point-scoring than solutions, the tactic could backfire.

But the LDF has so far bypassed that risk admirably. It exudes confidence on the floor of the House, backed by its numbers and the very procedure of adjournment motions, where the minister concerned enjoys unlimited time to reply. And the UDF has simply failed to learn the lesson from its repeated defeats.

“The government has no fear in facing adjournment motions, which is why they are being taken up one after another. This marks a new chapter in democratic practice. The Opposition has been left weakened and worn out, and everyone has seen that,” said CPI(M) state secretary MV Govindan.

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Opposition’s dilemma

The implications of this strategic shift are far beyond a single debate. For the media, it provides a steady stream of quotable exchanges, with the chief minister’s voice often emerging as the loudest and sharpest.

For the Opposition, it raises a dilemma: to boycott is to seem irrelevant, but to engage is to risk being skewered by counter-narratives that reach back across decades. Its walkouts make less impact when debates are regularly permitted. Its motions no longer surprise or shame the ruling front; they open the floor for another round of sharp exchanges in which the LDF is equally, if not more, adept.

And finally, the sorry sight of Antony defending his distant past underlines just how much the terrain has shifted.