Policy Address Contains False Claims, Lacks Credibility: Opposition Leader Satheesan | India News

In a strongly worded critique, Opposition Leader V D Satheesan lambasted the Kerala government’s policy address delivered by Governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar in the State Assembly on Tuesday, describing it as a document riddled with “false claims and half-truths.”

Speaking to reporters alongside United Democratic Front (UDF) leaders following the governor’s presentation of the government-approved policy address, Satheesan asserted that the speech itself revealed the Left Democratic Front (LDF) administration’s precarious financial position.

“Between the lines, the failure of the government stands out clearly. The policy statement is an open admission that the government is in severe financial trouble,” Satheesan told the media.

The Opposition Leader highlighted a significant discrepancy in the government’s financial claims. He noted that while the administration had previously claimed ₹53,000 crore was due from the Central government, this substantial figure was conspicuously absent from both the policy address and in documentation filed before the Supreme Court, raising questions about consistency in the state’s financial narrative.

Satheesan took particular aim at what he characterized as hypocritical claims about upholding secular values. “Keeping a minister like Saji Cherian in the cabinet, who raised extreme communal remarks, the government claims to protect secular values,” he alleged, pointing to what the opposition views as contradictory stances within the ruling coalition.

The LDF government’s declaration that Kerala has achieved “extreme-poverty-free” status drew especially sharp criticism from Satheesan, who dismissed it as “a blatant lie and an injustice to the poor.” He countered this claim with statistics suggesting approximately six lakh families remain categorized as extremely poor, while media reports continue to document cases of citizens without adequate food and shelter.

Kerala’s once-celebrated health sector is now “on a ventilator,” according to Satheesan, who cited rising infectious diseases and significant financial arrears. He specifically pointed to accumulated debts of ₹1,200 crore under the Karunya health scheme, a program designed to provide medical assistance to economically disadvantaged families.

The state’s education system also came under fire in Satheesan’s critique. He highlighted institutional leadership gaps across the higher education landscape, with universities functioning without vice-chancellors and colleges without principals. This administrative vacuum, he suggested, has contributed to a concerning trend of students leaving Kerala to pursue educational opportunities elsewhere.

Public safety concerns featured prominently in Satheesan’s assessment, with the opposition leader describing the current security situation as marked by “unprecedented crime and drug mafia activity.” He further accused the government of systematically neglecting vulnerable groups, including farmers, wildlife attack victims, and pensioners.

Addressing the ongoing tensions between the state government and Governor Arlekar, Satheesan suggested a pattern of manufactured conflict. “Whenever the government is in crisis, there is a fight with the governor. When the crisis passes, they settle,” he observed, implying that these public confrontations serve as diversionary tactics during periods of administrative difficulty.

Satheesan concluded his critique by asserting that Kerala’s citizens have grown skeptical of these repeated governor-government standoffs and have “stopped taking such confrontations seriously.” In his final assessment, he dismissed the policy address as “a document with no credibility.”

The exchange highlights the deepening political divide in Kerala, where the LDF government faces mounting criticism over its economic management, social welfare initiatives, and institutional governance amid challenging financial circumstances.