Nilamel in Kollam witnessed high drama when the Governor stopped his vehicle on the highway and stepped out to shout at SFI activists.
Khan sits on the roadside at Nilamel. (Supplied)
Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan was accorded Z-plus category security on Saturday, 27 January, a few hours after he sat by the road, protesting against the police’s failure to prevent Students Federation of India (SFI) activists from “ambushing” his car.
According to Raj Bhavan sources, a 60-member detail would take charge of the Governor’s security. While a 10-member team of the National Security Guard (NSG) would be in charge of his security, 50 Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) officers would be guarding his residence.
The Union Home Ministry acted with unprecedented alacrity, within hours of Khan making a request for central security, according to the sources.
Saturday’s developments could cause further deterioration in the relationship between the state government and the Governor, who had, two days ago, cut short the customary policy address to the Assembly’s Budget session. He had left the House after reading only the concluding paragraph,
The move comes after Governor Khan staged a sudden roadside protest against black-flag-waving SFI protesters and the Kerala Police in Kollam. SFI is the student arm of the CPI(M), which leads the LDF government in the state.
Khan was heading to Kottarakkara to attend the centenary celebrations of an ashram when SFI activists waved black flags at his motorcade around 11 am near the busy Nilamel junction in Kollam, some 40 km from Thiruvananthapuram.
After instructing the driver to stop the car, the 72-year-old Governor alighted from the vehicle, and moved towards the student protesters, shouting aao (come) in Hindi.
The police and the Governor’s security detail formed a human wall, before removing the protesters.
The Governor borrowed a chair from a roadside restaurant and sat there for about two hours, claiming that the police had failed in preventing the protesters from hitting his vehicle. He instructed his staff to report the developments to the Prime Minister’s Office and the Union home minister.
The SFI has been protesting against the Governor across the state for more than a month, accusing him of nominating Sangh Parivar activists to the senates and syndicates of the state-run universities.
Incidentally, in his Republic Day address on Friday, Governor Khan had upheld the right to dissent.
“Dissent and differences of opinion are essential ingredients of democratic functioning. But dissent degenerating into violence, be it physical or verbal, is a betrayal of democracy and symbol of human failure,” he said.
Khan further said that the need of the hour was to foster in society a culture of greater civility, empathy, and dialogue that “reposes faith in the power of argument and not in the argument of power”.
The face-off between #KeralaGovernor and SFI activists turns intense. #Kerala Governor Arif Mohammad Khan confronts SFI workers and stages a roadside protest in Kollam.
The governor said a failed police system created this havoc. He accused the police of serious dereliction… pic.twitter.com/ULEWuVnvmF
— South First (@TheSouthfirst) January 27, 2024
The Governor reportedly shouted at the state police chief, DGP Shaik Darvesh Saheb, when the senior IPS officer contacted him over the phone.
Khan told the DGP that he did not mind the black flag protests, but stepped out of the vehicle only after the police had failed to prevent the student activists from hitting his official vehicle.
In December, Khan similarly got out of his car and dared SFI activists who allegedly hit his car while he was on the way from the Raj Bhavan to the Thiruvananthapuram airport.
Khan ended the two-hour-long protest and proceeded to Kollam only after police handed him the FIR registered against 17 SFI activists under Sections 143 (unlawful assembly), 144 (joining unlawful assembly armed with deadly weapon), 283 (danger or obstruction of in public way or public line of navigation), 353 (assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty), 124 (concealing with intent to facilitate design to wage war), and 149 (offence committed by the members of unlawful assembly) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
Around 50 SFI activists participated in the protest and the police said stringent clauses would be invoked against others as well.
While returning to his car, the Governor spoke to reporters gathered at the scene.
He accused Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan of hatching a government-sponsored plot to physically harm him and to precipitate a constitutional crisis to cover up his administrative failures in a bid to check an anti-incumbency feeling against his government.
Khan had, in an earlier instance, also accused Vijayan of trying to harm him physically.
Terming the Vijayan government a failed one, the Governor alleged that the government and the ruling party wanted to provoke him into resorting to “drastic action”, which may later be interpreted as using extra-constitutional powers and creating a crisis.
He has also charged the CPI(M) and the government with resorting to violence to shy away from the state’s “self-inflicted financial crisis”.
Khan also pointed out that the Vijayan government had admitted in the high court that the treasury was bone dry and the administration was hard-pressed to honour its financial commitments, including those made to government pensioners and lakhs of social welfare pension beneficiaries.
Terming the SFI workers “CPI(M)-paid goons”, he said that the chief minister had permitted them to target him.
Khan said he would not oblige the government. He clarified that the sit-in roadside demonstration was not a protest against the ruling party or the government.
“There is no need for protest when I can take direct action. I waited for some time, facilitating the police to prepare a copy of the First Information Report and hand it over to me. I would send the FIR to the secretary of the Union Ministry of Home Affairs,” Khan said.
“Will they ambush the car if the Chief Minister proceeds through this road? Why had the police not ensured proper security? As the head of the state, I am duty-bound to prevent lawlessness on the roads,” he said.
Khan said both the police and the SFI were acting in tandem in the state at the behest of the chief minister. He claimed that the police had brought the SFI activists to the spot in their vehicles and whisked them after making a token arrest.
“Police officers on duty are acting as per orders of the chief minister. In the case of SFI protesters, they draw a daily wage for committing crimes abetted by the ruling disposition. The organisation’s state chief has 40 criminal cases against him,” Khan alleged.
In Thiruvananthapuram, Vijayan did not comment, but smiled at reporters’ repeated questions about the Governor protesting on the roadside.
Meanwhile, SFI state president PM Arsho said that Khan had enacted a big drama at Nilamel and it would not dampen his organisation’s spirit to fight against the Governor’s communal designs.
He said the SFI would continue its “moral, ethical, and democratic” struggle against the Chancellor of universities — the Governor — against his move to saffronise the campuses.
Arsho said the SFI would remain committed to conducting democratic and peaceful struggles to protect the autonomous and secular traditions and nature of state-funded institutions of higher learning.
Meanwhile, General Education Minister V Sivankutty said Khan’s roadside performance would not affect the people of the state or the government.
“We have brooked Khan’s disparaging comments against the chief minister and Cabinet colleagues for long. The Governor has repeatedly conducted himself in an undemocratic, autocratic, spiteful, and vindictive manner, which does not befit his high office and is an insult to the people of Kerala,” the minister said.
“He should remember the voters elected the LDF to power for two consecutive terms,” Sivankutty, a former state president of the SFI, added.
Union Minister of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan said the police failed in protect the titular head of state at the chief minister’s behest, which must be condemned.
“They should have re-routed the Governor’s motorcade or removed the protesters from the roadside ahead of the VIP’s arrival. The police actively colluded with the SFI goons at Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s instance,” he alleged.
Muraleedharan asked Vijayan to clarify whether Kerala’s law and order situation had collapsed. “If Vijayan says that the state police are constrained to protect the Governor, then the Centre can send its forces for Khan’s security,” the BJP leader added.
The last time when SFI had mounted protests at the Calicut University against the Governor, he made an impromptu visit to the Mittai Theruvu (SM Street) in Kozhikode, walking right through the street meeting people, greeting them, taking selfies with them and tasting sweets.
During the Republic Day celebrations at the Central Stadium in the state capital, Khan and Vijayan ignored each other, though they were seated side-by-side.
The Cabinet and LDF MLAs boycotted the “At Home” event hosted at the Raj Bhavan on Friday evening as part of the Republic Day celebrations.
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