Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan had “overstepped” all boundaries with his constant political attacks on the elected State government and his “grossly erratic behaviour”, the CPI(M) Polit Bureau said in a statement here, calling him “unworthy of continuing in the post.”
The statement, is a direct response to Mr. Khan’s allegation that Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan gave orders to put up black banners against him inside the campus of the Calicut University. The Governor was in Kozhikode on Sunday to attend a wedding when the members of Students’ Federation of India (SFI), a student wing of CPI(M), allegedly put up banners that read “Sanghi Chancellor, go back”, outside the university guest house where he was staying.
The Raj Bhavan put out a statement, saying that the Governor felt that the black banners could not have come up without the “direction of the Chief Minister” and that “this clearly is the beginning of the collapse of the constitutional machinery in the State.”
Many believe that he was building ground to impose President’s Rule here. Such threats, the Polit Bureau Bureau said, would be “rejected outright by the people of the State.”
The Governor has been facing protests over his choices for the nominated seats in the senates of Kerala and Calicut Universities. The Left parties have alleged that he is “misusing” his position as Chancellor of these universities and appointing RSS nominees to the seat. “While the students have the democratic right to protest peacefully, the Governor has sought to blame the Chief Minister for these protests and made insulting references to him,” the Polit Bureau statement contended. This was not way for a person holding the Constitutional post of Governor to behave. “He has proved himself unworthy of continuing in that post,” it said.
