Kerala CPI-M treads in unfamiliar territory as Guv fires on all cylinders

By Sanu V George

Thiruvananthapuram, Oct 25 (SocialNews.XYZ) In Kerala, the CPI-M is known for taking to the streets at the drop of a hat, but this happens whenever they are in the opposition, but with Governor Arif Mohammed Khan now firing on all cylinders, the CPI-M led Left Front government is caught in a quandary and perhaps for the first time, they are taking to the streets, while being in office.

Leaving nothing to chance, the CPI-M led by none other than its powerhouse Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan himself is leading from the front to take on Khan and what the party state secretary M.V. Govindan himself said, it will be one of the biggest protests ever seen in the state on November 15.

And as a trailer to the biggest protest, all across the state, on Tuesday and Wednesday, the Left party workers will be taking to the streets against Khan, whom they think is trying to implement the Sangh Parivar agenda across the universities in the state.

Already cut up with Khan, who first showed the exit door to 15 Kerala University senate members for not adhering to his decision to take part in a senate meeting early this month, and the other day acting on a Supreme Court directive asked the vice-chancellor (V-C) of the APJ Abdul Kalam Technological University of Kerala - M.S. Rajasree, and eight other V-Cs of various universities to quit. This has ruffled Vijayan and the entire Left.

Following an urgent sitting of the Kerala High Court on Diwali day, the Kerala High Court held that the letter issued by Khan, directing the V-Cs of eight universities in Kerala to resign, was no longer valid since the Governor himself later issued show cause notices asking the V-Cs for their response.

The court, therefore, ruled that the V-Cs can continue in their posts till the Governor passes a final order after following the procedure under law.

All these V-Cs have been asked to reply latest by November 3.

Khan has been peeved for a while against Vijayan, since the latter gives scant respect to the former by totally ignoring conventions and protocols, which has been in vogue for long.

Incidentally, it was Vijayan who suffered a rude jolt in 2006 when the then Governor R.L. Bhatia gave the nod to prosecute him in the SNC Lavalin case.

Popular media critic A.Jayasankar recalled that the CPI-M then in opposition tried to send warning signals to Bhatia not to do anything "foolish", but he gave the sanction to prosecute him and that case continues even now.

"So, if the CPI-M thinks that they can take on the Governor, they will end up the way Vijayan ended in 2006, as the Governor has his own set of rules and he will act accordingly, as has been seen in the country for long," said Jayasankar.

The Congress-led opposition is, however, playing the waiting game and so far has not reacted even as the fight between Vijayan and Khan is getting intense, while the state BJP has threatened that they will not sit idle, if Khan comes under duress from the ruling Left.

"None should forget the residence of Vijayan is not far to where Khan lives, so that should not be forgotten," said state BJP president K. Surendran.

So at the moment Khan is on a strong wicket, while the CPI-M is not, as they are in office currently and various news TV channels are digging out old videos when leaders like Vijayan were in the opposition and were attacking the then government-led by Oommen Chandy in the solar scam case.

Source: IANS