A politically charged atmosphere seemed to prevail in Kerala with Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and Governor Arif Mohammed Khan going head to head against each other in separate and somewhat combative press conferences in Kollam and Malappuram, respectively, on December 18 (Monday).
In Kollam, Mr. Vijayan said the Kerala Government would move the Prime Minister and the President to “rein in Mr. Khan from vitiating the State’s peaceful atmosphere by resorting to provocative acts.”
Almost simultaneously in Malappuram, Mr. Khan upped the ante in his stridently recriminatory stand-off with the Kerala Government by stating that “intimidatory tactics by the very person who is responsible for scores of political murders in Kannur” would not cow him into subservient silence.
