The ongoing political fight between Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan and Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan is not ending soon. The CM is going ahead with his political campaign of the ‘Nava Kerala yatra’ and the governor is leaving no stone unturned to prove he is the boss.
The latest tussle was about the senate nominations at Calicut University, where Khan nominated members against the wishes of the government. This infuriated the ruling CPM and its student’s wing, SFI, which declared that it will not allow the governor to set foot on any campus in the state. Khan took up the challenge — he not just visited but stayed on at the Calicut University campus for two days. The students staged protests and waved black flags at him, but this did not seem to deter Khan.
Before the governor came to the campus, SFI activists hoisted banners against the governor, who is also chancellor of all the universities in the state. During his stay at the university, Khan asked the varsity officials and the police to remove the banners, but they refused. Ultimately, Khan prevailed but SFI activists immediately came up with a new banner — this time on a barricade.
The next day, banners proliferated on almost every college and university campuses across the state. The CPI(M) youth wing, Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI), also joined the protest and put up a banner with ‘Sanghi Chancellor Quit Kerala' emblazoned on it.
The banner in front of Kerala Varma College, Thrissur, had some standout gastronomic text, 'Your dal will not cook here,' — in white against a dark background — creating the intended flurry.
It went viral and was trolled on social media for the poor English knowledge of the new-gen Communist leaders. "Don’t be silly, this is serious,” trolled an advocate, Jayashanker, who took a dig at the state's Higher Education Minister Dr R, Bindhu, an English professor at the college before she entered the election fray in 2021.
But it was former MLA and Congress leader V.T. Balram who added more flavour to the topic with lines like — 'You won’t do any dry ginger, (nee oru chukkum cheyyilla),' and so on.
The Left Front leaders and SFI workers believe that people don’t understand the sarcasm of the trolls, so, they are trolling them back.
Meanwhile, the governor has said CM Pinarayi is instigating the students to protest against him and even called the CM a "bully." Pinarayi has counter-alleged that the governor has violated security protocol by visiting Mithai Street in Kozhikode. Pinarayi even said the state may ask the Centre to recall the governor.
Khan's motorcade was attacked by SFI workers in Thiruvananthapuram when he was on his way to the airport last week. Seven persons were arrested in this connection.
Unfazed and determined, the CM is continuing with his Nava Kerala yatra, amid violent tussles between flag-waving Youth Congress workers on one hand, and the police and DYFI workers, on the other.
(Edited by : Shoma Bhattacharjee)
First Published: Dec 20, 2023 6:49 PM IST
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