Casting Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan’s sit-in protest at Nilamel in Kollam on Saturday as a violation of VIP security protocol, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said people holding public office should desist from behaving as if they were above the law.
Mr. Vijayan bracketed Mr. Khan with the few Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh activists in Kerala who get the protection of Central government-controlled paramilitary forces when journalists pointed out that Raj Bhavan had announced that the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) would provide the Governor Z-plus category security.
“As the Governor, he has been occupying a position which commands the highest levels of security detail in the State. It is strange that he has relinquished that and chosen to limit himself to CRPF security, which is also being provided to a few RSS workers. Will the CRPF now rule Kerala directly? Can the CRPF act according to Mr. Khan’s wishes, as he expects the State police force to do? There are written laws for these, and the Governor cannot take a different stand. In the past too, when both the Centre and the State were under the same party, Kerala has witnessed the deployment of CRPF for various purposes, but it has not affected us in any manner,” said Mr. Vijayan.
Regarding the Governor winding up the policy address on Thursday in less than two minutes, Mr. Vijayan said such an act was an affront to Kerala and the Indian Constitution and not to any one party or the government.
“He seems to have enough time to stage a roadside sit-in protest for more than an-hour-and-a-half but not enough to read the policy address. Do we need a sit-in protest to register an FIR? In such matters, it is important to have the good sense to behave maturely and in a democratic manner. These things cannot be learned from a school. One has to attain it through experience. It would seem he has failed to achieve it despite the long years of experience,” he said.
On Leader of the Opposition V.D. Satheesan’s comments about the issue, Mr. Vijayan said his words criticising the Students Federation of India seemed to echo Mr. Khan’s ire towards the student body accurately.
