Today the CPI(M)'s student outfit, the Students' Federation of India (SFI) continued its protests against Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan by welcoming him with black flags and banners when he was visiting the Dental College, reportedly for treatment. SFI displayed a banner stating — 'We want Chancellor, not Savarkar' — outside the Dental College, as stated in a report by PTI.
The CPI(M)'s youth wing, the Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI), also joined the SFI's protest by putting up a banner — 'Sanghi Chancellor quit Kerala' — on the route to the college. Besides these, SFI activists also allegedly showed black flags to the governor when he returned to the Raj Bhavan.
The ongoing row between the SFI and the governor in the state has been witnessing dramatic scenes starting with the student outfit's activists allegedly attacking Khan's vehicle last week and putting up banners in Calicut University calling him a 'sanghi' while he retaliated by calling them 'bullies', 'criminals' and 'goondas'.
Khan also hit the streets of Kozhikode city on December 18 to show there were no protests against him. When he returned to the capital city that evening, there were protests against him at various places along the route from the Thiruvananthapuram airport to the Raj Bhavan.
The SFI also put up banners against Khan in several colleges across the state and also burnt his effigy. The dramatic scenes and verbal duels between the governor on one side and the CM and the SFI on the other are over the issue of appointments made by Khan to the senate of some universities in the state.
Khan has claimed that he was being attacked as the state government and the SFI no longer have control over the universities in the state given the recent Supreme Court order quashing a reappointment of Gopinath Ravindran as Vice-Chancellor of Kannur University. The apex court had also berated the Left government for its "unwarranted intervention" in the matter, reported PTI.
