Bengaluru: First, it was Tamil Nadu. After which Kerala. Now, Karnataka has additionally joined the record of opposition-ruled states locked in battle with their governors.

On Thursday, Karnataka Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot refused to learn a cabinet-approved speech that criticised the central authorities’s resolution to repeal the United Progressive Alliance-era flagship rural employment scheme, including to the pressure between the Congress authorities and the Lok Bhavan.

After being welcomed by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, Meeting Speaker U.T. Khader, council chairman Basavaraj Horatti and others, Gehlot went as much as the speaker’s podium and delivered a brief speech.

“I welcome everybody to the joint session of the state legislature. It provides me immense pleasure to handle one other joint session of the state legislature. My authorities is totally dedicated to double financial, social and mental progress,” Gehlot mentioned in his speech earlier than concluding with ‘Jai Hind and Jai Karnataka’.

He then walked out amid sloganeering by Congress legislators protesting his actions. Bharatiya Janata Get together (BJP) legislators countered by chanting ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’.

Excessive drama adopted as a number of Congress leaders tried to cease Gehlot and ask him to finish his speech. Senior Congress chief B.Ok. Hariprasad compelled his manner by the Governor’s safety to influence him to learn the total speech.

“As we speak, as a substitute of talking the speech ready by the cupboard, he (Gehlot) spoke the speech ready by himself. That’s in opposition to the provisions of the Indian Structure,” Chief Minister Siddaramaiah informed reporters Thursday.

He added that the Governor had “violated the Structure”, “insulted the home of the folks’s representatives”, and had acted like “the puppet of the Central authorities.”

“The Governor has chosen to justify this new legislation and act as if he lacks independence, aligning himself with the Union Authorities’s place,” Siddaramaiah posted on X.

My response to the Governor’s conduct in refusing to learn the Cupboard-prepared tackle and as a substitute delivering a speech drafted by himself, in violation of constitutional norms:

By not studying the tackle ready by the Cupboard on the first joint session of the yr, the Hon’ble… pic.twitter.com/kAkWkPFZe1

— Siddaramaiah (@siddaramaiah) January 22, 2026

Gehlot’s refusal mirrors latest developments within the opposition-ruled neighbouring states.

In Tamil Nadu, Governor R.N. Ravi walked out of the Meeting with out studying his customary speech on Tuesday. Kerala Governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar omitted elements of the speech permitted by the Pinarayi Vijayan-led authorities earlier this week.

In Karnataka, the dispute started brewing on Wednesday afternoon when the Lok Bhavan knowledgeable the chief secretary of the Governor’s “reservations” about studying the cabinet-prepared speech.

Karnataka’s legislation and parliamentary minister, H.Ok. Patil, the chief minister’s authorized advisor, A.S. Ponnana, Advocate Common Shashikiran Shetty and others met with Siddaramaiah, adopted by back-and-forth negotiations with the Lok Bhavan to discover a “center floor”.

The Karnataka Cupboard had permitted a 28-page speech with 128 paragraphs. Patil mentioned that Gehlot requested for the removing of 11 paragraphs from the speech (in Kannada) if he needed to ship it. The state authorities, together with the CM, denied this request, in accordance with at the least two folks immediately concerned within the late-night conferences.

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‘Discarded like fallen leaves’

What are these contentious points that Gehlot refused to learn? One disputed paragraph mentioned that Karnataka is going through an “oppressive state of affairs” in financial and coverage issues throughout the federal set-up.

“In areas corresponding to tax devolution, centrally-sponsored schemes, central schemes, particular schemes, and so on., the state has been subjected to injustice. Karnataka occupies a driving place within the nation’s financial system; whether it is economically suppressed, the impression shall be felt throughout the whole nation,” in accordance with a translation of the Kannada speech.

One other contentious part mentioned that the central authorities’s resolution to repeal the MNREGA “weakened” life in rural India and Karnataka and “if villages perish, India will perish”.

“Village regeneration is feasible solely when exploitation of villages fully ceases. All our consideration have to be targeted on making villages self-reliant. Gandhi additionally believed that villages shouldn’t change into cesspools, and that folks shouldn’t be compelled emigrate to cities seeking meals and employment,” in accordance with the official English speech copy that was permitted by the Karnataka Cupboard.

The federal government mentioned that the employment ensures assured by the MNREGA had been “taken away” with the brand new VB-G RAM G Act.

“The demand-based employment precept has been destroyed and changed with a supply-driven scheme. The VB Gram-G scheme has been designed to guard company capitalist pursuits, thereby sacrificing rural folks’s welfare,” in accordance with the speech copy.

It added that the federal government condemned the “regressive, anti-progressive step” and that the MNREGA’s goals of asset creation and offering employment to labourers in their very own areas “have been discarded like fallen leaves”.

“Below the MGNREGA, works had been determined and carried out by Gram Sabhas. Below the brand new legislation, the powers of Gram Sabhas have been fully curtailed by centralised norms. These actions are usually not merely anti-democratic however are additionally anti-progressive measures that ignore the calls for of the vast majority of residents and push nationwide curiosity in the direction of destruction,” the speech added.

The Siddaramaiah authorities mentioned that it opposed this new legislation, which “re-establishes a system that forces folks emigrate or transfer to giant cities” for employment and curtails the rights of “Dalits, Adivasis, ladies, backward lessons, and farming communities that had been protected underneath MGNREGA”.

The federal government, in its speech to the governor, mentioned that the non-consultative method by which the legislation was introduced additionally quantities to an “unconstitutional act”.

The speech additional states that the rights of employees have been positioned underneath the “management of contractors” and that the safety of poor wage labourers is “being eroded”.

(Edited by Sugita Katyal)

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