Thiruvananthapuram | The controversy over Governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar's policy speech in the State Assembly on Tuesday is "unnecessary and baseless," the Kerala Lok Bhavan said here.

Soon after Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan accused the Governor of "omitting" key suggestions in the Assembly address, the Lok Bhavan said the Governor had asked that "half-truths" be removed from the draft of the speech.

"The government had responded that the speech could be prepared and read with amendments that the Governor found appropriate. There was also an indication that the speech could be sent again with the suggested changes.

"However, the same speech was sent back to the Governor after midnight yesterday without any amendments. The Governor, who returned late to Thiruvananthapuram from Kozhikode, read the speech in the Assembly this morning," it said.

According to the Lok Bhavan, the speech "was initially informed as being suggested by him and agreed upon by the government." It said the draft had stated that the government had approached the Supreme Court because bills passed by the legislature had not received approval for a long time, and that the Apex Court had referred them to a constitutional bench.

This is factually incorrect, noting that "the Supreme Court has not referred them to a constitutional bench," the Lok Bhavan said.

The Governor had therefore asked that this reference be removed.

He had also suggested that the part stating the central government's position violated the constitutional principles on economic federalism should be deleted, it said.

Instead, it was recommended that it be recorded that Kerala is facing severe financial difficulties due to the denial of advance funds, the Lok Bhavan added.

According to the CM, the omitted portions included sections criticising the BJP-ruled Centre's fiscal policy and references to Bills pending approval from the Raj Bhavan.

Vijayan said the Governor did not read out the opening of paragraph 12 or the concluding portion of paragraph 15 of the document.

In addition, Arlekar made an insertion into paragraph 16 of the 157-paragraph, 72-page-long policy address, the chief minister informed the House. PTI TGB

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