'Placed by police at CM's behest': Kerala Guv blames Vijayan for posters against him at Calicut University campus

The SFI, the student wing of the CPI(M), has been staging widespread protests against the Governor alleging that he has been pushing the BJP-RSS nominees to the senate of various universities in Kerala using his authority as the Chancellor of the universities in the state. One such banner read, 'Sanghi Chancellor vapas jao'.

Thiruvananthapuram: The Calicut University campus in Kerala on Sunday witnessed tense scenes with Governor Arif Mohammed Khan forcing police and university authorities to remove all banners and posters against him on the university campus.

The SFI immediately staged a protest march and put up a fresh banner and posters against the Governor.

Khan also alleged that the posters and banners were placed at the behest of chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan. "Such deliberate actions of the chief minister precipitate the breakdown of constitutional machinery," a statement from Raj Bhavan said.

Governor's statement issued by the Kerala Raj Bhavan.

Khan has been staying at the university guest house since Saturday, challenging a call by CPM's student outfit SFI to not allow him to enter universities in the state.

On Sunday, the Governor asked university authorities and police to remove the banners with 'go back' and 'Sanghi' slogans put up by the SFI on the campus against him. On noticing that the banners were not removed till evening, he again came out of the guest house and fumed at the police officials for not removing the same. Subsequently the police removed the banners.

Soon after that, SFI activists led by state secretary P M Arsho marched to the university shouting provocative slogans against the Governor and put up a fresh banner.

As the Governor went to attend a marriage ceremony on Sunday, the SFI did not stage any protest. The Governor will be attending a function at the university on Monday. Tight police security is being provided to the Governor in view of SFI's protest.

Meanwhile, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has accused the Governor of violating protocol and asked the Centre to look into it. The Governor was nominating persons to university senates based on a list provided by the RSS, which was against the normal procedure, Vijayan alleged.

Vijayan also said that it was unfortunate that despite being an active politician in the past, Khan was using words like 'criminals' and 'goondas' against student activists. He was trying to provoke the student activists, Vijayan said.