The protracted Kerala government-Raj Bhavan stand-off over university Senate nominations and gubernatorial delay in signing Bills passed by the legislature into law came to a head on Thursday with Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan requesting Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s intervention to ensure Kerala Governor Arif Mohammad Khan discharged his constitutional duties and conducted himself within the bounds of his high office.
The Government’s uncustomary letter to Mr. Modi capped a season of bitter disagreement between Mr. Khan and Mr. Vijayan that often devolved into public wars of words and tit-for-tat accusations bordering on the personal.
An official said the letter, which remained confidential between the PM and CM, purportedly reflected Mr. Vijayan’s public position on the Government-Raj Bhavan dispute.
Mr. Vijayan had repeatedly criticised Mr. Khan for the latter’s alleged public posturing, for-a-dare approach to protesting students, sabre-rattling statements and disparaging remarks about Kerala.
Mr. Vijayan had termed Mr. Khan’s unannounced visit, startingly shunning police security, to the iconic S.M. Street in Kozhikode, patently unbecoming of the latter’s high public office and a grave breach of protocol.
The already fraught relationship between Mr. Khan and Mr. Vijayan had hit an antagonistic low recently, with the Raj Bhavan stating in an unusual communique that it sensed the “beginning of the collapse of the Constitutional machinery in the State”.
The Raj Bhavan had issued the contentious statement in the context of SFI’s escalating black flag protests against the Chancellor.
It blamed Mr. Vijayan for allegedly reining in the police from removing SFI-sponsored banners lampooning the Chancellor in the Calicut varsity campus and instigating the activists to “ambush” Mr. Khan’s motorcade in Thiruvananthapuram.
(The SFI has been on the warpath against Mr. Khan, accusing the Chancellor of stacking the Senates of State-funded varsities with Sangh Parivar nominees.)
Mr. Khan had also earned the ruling front’s criticism for suggesting that the State’s “dismal financial health” might warrant the Presidential imposition of a State of Financial Emergency in Kerala.
Mr. Khan had set a 10-day deadline for the Government to appraise him of the State’s financial situation or said he would draw his conclusion. Mr. Khan also noted that the Government had deposed in the High Court that the administration needed help honour its financial guarantees, including pensions.
