Kerala Guv Arif Mohammad Khan Gets Z+ Security After Face-Off With SFI Activists Over Black Flag Protest

Breaking the conventionalities of his office, Kerala Governor Arif Mohammad Khan on Saturday staged a sit-in protest at a roadside shop in the Nilamel area of Kerala’s Kollam district demanding the arrest of Students Federation of India (SFI) activists who showed black flags to his motorcade.

Following the showdown, the Union Home Ministry has extended Z+ security cover of CRPF to the Governor, the Kerala Raj Bhavan said in a statement.

The chain of events unfolded about 40 km from the state capital Thiruvananthapuram, where some SFI activists, protesting the Chancellor’s alleged move to stack State-funded universities with Sangh Parivar nominees, waved black flags and banners– stating “Sanghi Chancellor go back” — at him.

A visibly angry Khan stepped out of his vehicle and rushed towards the protestors, which led to police forming a human shield around him as he loudly dared the student activists, who kept yelling slogans at Khan.

After the police removed the protestors from the area, Khan took a chair from a shop on the busy MC Road and sat down there demanding action against the agitators.

In the visuals aired on TV channels, a visibly angry Khan could also be seen talking tough to the police personnel. He was heard telling his personal staff to get him the Police Commissioner or whosoever was there in his office.

“Else call the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO),” he was heard saying.

When the officers there requested him to resume his journey, the Governor refused and shot back, “I will not go. You (police) were giving protection to them (protestors) here.”

“The police were standing there and giving protection to them. I will not go from here. If the police itself is breaking the law, who will uphold the law.”

“When I reached here, some people tried to hit my car. I have already been told that if somebody came to my car, I would get down. You can see how many police were there. If the CM was going through this way would they have allowed people to stand with black flags,” he added.

When reporters later asked Khan if he had staged a protest, he said it was not so.

He said that he had not staged a protest but was waiting for the police to show him the FIR copy following his demand for action against the protesting SFI members, affiliated to the CPI-M.

Khan accused CM Pinarayi Vijayan of “promoting lawlessness in the state.”

“It is CM who is giving protection to these people. They are only daily wagers of the CM. As head of the state, I will not allow this lawlessness. Police cannot remove these people because CM wants these people there,” he said.

After sitting there for over two hours, Khan left the place only after the police showed him a copy of the FIR lodged against 17 SFI activists under non-bailable provisions of the law.

Speaking to reporters, the Governor lashed out at Vijayan, saying the Marxist veteran was “promoting lawlessness in the state”. “It is him who is giving direction to the police to give protection to these lawbreakers against whom, including the state president of the organisation (SFI) many criminal cases are pending in the courts,” Khan charged.

He also questioned whether the protestors would have been allowed to line up alongside the police on the roadside if the CM was passing through that route. Khan also claimed that the protestors tried to hit his vehicle.

“This is not any protest. Why should I protest? Why will I protest? I can take action. I was waiting for the FIR copy to come,” Khan said.

Khan and the Left government have been at loggerheads over several issues, primarily about the functioning of universities in the state and his non-signing of certain bills passed by the assembly.

Amid the face-off, on Thursday, the Governor had finished his customary policy address to the Kerala Assembly within two minutes, reading out only the last paragraph.