In his letter to the Governor, the Speaker said: “If the incident has caused any kind of annoyance or displeasure, I tender my unconditional apology for the same. There never was any intention to avoid or ignore your good self,” said the Speaker’s letter.

The Speaker’s initiative to resolve the controversy has been timely. For, the incident had caused considerable embarrassment to the Pinarayi Vijayan-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) Government.

It may be mentioned that the media’s highlighting of the ‘insult to the Governor’ had forced Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan to come out with a clarification in the State Assembly. It was no goof-up, clarified the Chief Minister at the inaugural, adding that the if the Governor had been invited, it would have created a protocol problem. “”It does not mean that we have avoided him,” the CM further said, seeking to erase the impression that it was an insult to the Governor. “It is an year-long celebration and the Kerala Governor would be part of the valedictory function or even a more important one to be held in between,” he added.

However, the CM’s silence on not inviting former chief ministers A K Antony, V S Achuthananfan and Oommen Chandy has caused eyebrows to be raised and set tongues wagging. In fact, VS and Chandy were present at the special meeting of the State Assembly held prior to the inaugural. But they did not turn up for the inaugural held later.

The non-invitation to the Governor and the three former chief ministers had marred the spirit of joy which otherwise animated the celebrations. It was a controversy the LDF Government could have done without.

The row provided an issue-starved Opposition United Democratic Front(UDF) with a powerful weapon to grill the government.

The Congress lost no time in trying to extract political capital out of the issue. Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president, V. M. Sudheeran was the first to fire the salvo against the government. He was particularly critical of the insult to former chief minister A K Antony. The latter, he said, had come to Thiruvananthapuram all the way from New Delhi to attend the inaugural on a phone call from the Chief Minister. However, Antony kept away from the function on finding that the list of invitees did not have his name!

By doing what he did, the Speaker has done the LDF Government a good turn. It would go a long way to deflect criticism over the issue. If only the issue had been handled with greater tact, the unnecessary embarrassment could have been avoided. (IPA)