The tussle between Governor Arif Mohammad Khan and the Pinarayi Vijayan government is ongoing in Kerala. A quirky fact about this ongoing tussle is that both parties are trying to use “the people of Kerala” as their shield.
On Wednesday, while speaking after inaugurating the Left Democratic Front’s convention, CM Vijayan said that his government’s and LDF’s actions are to “protect the higher education sector and resist moves against Kerala”. It is notable that, he is stressing the governor’s moves as actions not just against his government, but the state of Kerala. He said the governor is trying to run a parallel government and is taking steps to bring the state universities under the control of Sangh Parivar.
The CPI(M)’s idea of defence against the governor is to create a public-supported movement against him.
Party state secretary M.V. Govindan announced that in the coming two weeks, the CPI(M) and its allies would organise house visits, campus protests and district conventions against the governor’s “unwarranted interference” in the state’s higher education sector. The party plans to have a march of one lakh people to Raj Bhawan.
As expected, the governor reacted to the chief minister’s comments today. Self-assigning the role of the people’s protector, he aired the rhetoric that the state government is anti-people. While talking to the media about his last week’s move of withdrawing his “pleasure” on state finance minister K.N. Balagopal, he said: “There are two parts to my oath. One part is that I must defend, protect and preserve the Constitution. The second is I shall serve the interest of the people of Kerala to the best of my ability. If a minister is trying to stoke the fire of regionalism, provincialism… if he is asking how anybody belonging to UP can understand the education system of Kerala… then he is challenging the national unity.”
Governor then assumed himself as the voice of the people in Kerala by saying that the CPI(M) must know how the people of Kerala have reacted in the past when the national unity was challenged. “They must remember how Diwan of Travancore was treated when national unity was challenged,” he said.
The governor also added that by withdrawing his pleasure against a minister in the Pinarayi Vijayan government, he was informing the Kerala public about a dangerous situation created. “What I have done was to inform the people of Kerala that this man [minister] is creating a problem for you,” said the governor. “Because he is stoking the fire of regionalism. People of Kerala are all over the country. The minister is creating a dangerous situation for them," he added.
The governor also announced that he has "grounds to involve” in the infamous gold smuggling case—which is currently being probed by multiple law enforcement agencies from the Centre. “If the chief minister’s office is involved in smuggling activities, if the CM’s office is involved in appointing unqualified and underqualified people in state universities, I have every ground to involve in it,” he said, without making clear what kind of action he would be able to take in it.
“The details of the smuggling activities… became public only recently," said the governor. "I came to the conclusion that the office of the chief minister is involved [in it] … and the law enforcement agencies are not being allowed to investigate it [properly]. I am not alleging… I am only saying what the people of Kerala are talking about. I must take cognisance [of what they are saying].” Here again, the governor is using the same prop—people of Kerala—to explain his position.
Both governor Khan and Vijayan want the validation of people in this tussle. And, there is no doubt that if this tussle continues in this form, the CPI(M) and its allies are likely to face more damage. After all, it is not Arif Mohammad Khan from Uttar Pradesh, but Pinarayi Vijayan and his comrades who must face the “people of Kerala” in future elections.
