Outraged over posters and banners put up by the SFI on Calicut University campus, Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan on Sunday said “the defamatory posters and banners were placed at the direction of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan”. Governor dubbed the incident as “the beginning of the collapse of the constitutional machinery in the state”. Khan has been staying on the campus since Saturday, taking head-on the challenge of the SFI, the student wing of the ruling CPI(M), that he would not be allowed to step into any of the universities in the state. Banners, which accuse him of playing into the hands of the BJP, have been raised on the campus and near the guest house, where the Governor has been staying. Referring to the banners, Raj Bhavan, in an official release, said: “Hon’ble Governor Arif Mohammed Khan has taken a serious note of the action of the state police, on the direction of the Chief Minister, in placing posters defamatory to the Governor in the campus of Calicut University. The black banners and posters have been placed inside the campus and outside the university guest house where the Governor is staying. The Governor feels that this cannot happen without the direction of the Chief Minister and that this clearly is the beginning of the collapse of the constitutional machinery in the state. He said that such deliberate actions of the Chief Minister precipitate the breakdown of constitutional machinery.’’ Raj Bhavan sources added that the Calicut University V-C has been told to submit a report within 24 hours on what action he has taken in this matter. Khan, who has been staying in the university guest house since Saturday night, attended a marriage function in Kozhikode and found the banners when he came back. The Governor then directed senior police officers who were on duty to remove them. Later in the evening, Khan found the banners intact. He got angry at the senior police officers, who, in turn, removed all such banners. The SFI has been in an agitation against the Governor, who is the chancellor of all universities in the state, alleging that he had stacked university senates with RSS nominees. The SFI had staged a massive protest at the university campus against Khan. SFI state secretary P M Arsho said his organisation is engaged in a democratic protest against the Governor’s move to saffronise the universities. “SFI had raised the banners in a very democratic manner. We would not allow those banners to be removed. If one banner is removed, another hundred would be put up. Our agitation is to protect higher education in Kerala,’’ he said. Tension between the Governor and the SFI escalated last Monday after a group of students black-flagged him and allegedly tried to waylay his car. Khan, who disembarked from the car, called them “criminals’’. He returned to the vehicle only after SFI men were removed. After SFI announced that they wouldn’t let the Governor enter any university in the state, Khan decided to face the challenge during his visit to Kozhikode. He changed the earlier plan to stay at the government guest house in Kozhikode, and opted to stay at the University guest house instead.
