By Shankar Raj*
Thiruvananthapuram: In a move that has surprised politicians and bureaucrats, the Pinarayi Vijayan-headed Communist Party of India – Marxist government in Kerala has appointed a ‘Foreign Secretary’.
The strange and controversial order stated that Secretary (Labour and Skills) K Vasuki “will hold the additional charge of the matters connected with external cooperation. The officer will coordinate and supervise all the matters in this regard and incidental thereto, in addition to the existing charges”.
The order also stated that the General Administration (political) Department would deal with subjects related to external cooperation and would assist Vasuki till alternate arrangements are made. In this regard, the resident commissioner of Kerala House in New Delhi has been told to assist Vasuki in matters of external cooperation and to liaise with the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) in New Delhi and the Indian embassies and missions abroad.
Bureaucrats were quick to point out that no state can directly deal with business in foreign matters and that the move could be seriously viewed as an encroachment into subjects in the Union list of the Constitution.
The Kerala unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on July 20, 2024, slammed the Chief Minister and accused him of trying to “establish” Kerala as a “separate nation”.
“The appointment of an IAS officer as ‘Foreign Secretary’ in Kerala by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan is a blatant overreach and a violation of the Union list of our Constitution. The Left Democratic Front (LDF) government has no mandate in foreign affairs. This unconstitutional move sets a dangerous precedent. Is CM@pinarayivijayan trying to establish Keralam as a separate nation?” Kerala BJP President K. Surendran wrote on X.
“If things remain like this, very soon we will hear Vijayan asking for a separate Consulate and a Foreign Affairs Minister also,” Surendran added.
Former Cabinet Secretary KM Chandrasekhar was quoted as saying that “international relations are within the Centre’s domain. If any state department wants help from abroad, they can always approach the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) or the Indian embassy. I suppose the government will clarify what additional work will be done by this officer beyond what department secretaries already do,” he added.
*Shankar Raj is a former editor of The New Indian Express, Karnataka and Kerala, and writes regularly on current affairs.
