Lashing out at Governor Arif Mohammed Khan for branding Kannur University Vice Chancellor Gopinath Ravindran a criminal, the CPI(M) State Secretariat on Sunday said that the statements are unbecoming of the constitutional post that he is holding. The party's salvo against him is the latest episode in a protracted struggle between the ruling party and the Governor, which began with opposition to his contrarian positions, supporting the Union Government's Citizenship Amendment Act and the contentious farm laws.
The CPI(M) demanded that the Governor should make clear whether the Vice Chancellor was involved in any criminal activity for him to be branded so. He had only expressed his differences to a decision taken by the Governor. Instead of responding in a civilised manner, he had used words that are unbecoming of a Governor's post. Mr. Khan had lowered the esteem of the Governor's office to the level of a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh shakha by appointing known RSS men and turning his office into the centre of the group's conspiracies against the government, said the statement.
‘Political intervention’
The party accused him of crossing all limits and making political interventions in an attempt to curry favour with someone. His attempts were also aimed at reversing the gains that Kerala has achieved in the higher education sector in recent years. The State's universities had scored high in various national-level rankings. The LDF government had also been able to kick-start new initiatives, including Digital University and the Sree Narayana Guru Open University. The Governor was reluctant to acknowledge these achievements, said the CPI(M) State secretariat.
The statement also accused him of willfully making provocative comments and interventions with a clear intention ahead of the President, Vice President elections. It reminded him of the conciliatory comments made by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan last year. However, the Governor's later reactions showed that he was undeserving of such comments.
