MALAPPURAM: SFI activists launched a strong protest at Calicut University against Governor Arif Mohammed Khan on Monday.
The protest erupted after the chancellor labelled them as ‘criminals’ again and undertook a symbolic walk through Sweet Meat Street to ostensibly demonstrate the affection of the people of Kerala towards him.
Around 3.15 pm, over 1,000 SFI activists led by SFI state secretary P M Arsho took out a protest march to the university. Their banner prominently displayed the message ‘We need a chancellor, not Savarkar.’ The police prevented the agitators by putting up barricades near the university guest house. Despite these measures, some SFI activists scaled the walls along the road leading to the university, brandishing black flags in protest. Subsequently, the police resorted to a lathi charge and arrested the SFI activists who broke the security cordon.
Meanwhile, the chancellor inaugurated a seminar on Sree Narayana Guru organised by the Sanathana Dharma chair at the university seminar complex around 4.30 pm. Notably, Vice Chancellor M K Jayaraj, expected to preside over the function, was conspicuously absent. The chancellor had openly criticised the V-C the day before the seminar for failing to remove SFI banners from the campus. During the chancellor’s address at the seminar, SFI activists staged a sit-in in front of the university, shouting slogans against him.
Post-seminar, the chancellor said he was unaware of the reason behind the V-C’s non-attendance. When queried about issuing a show-cause notice to the vice chancellor, he cryptically responded that there were several other reasons warranting such a notice.
“There is a judgment from the Kerala High Court that expressly prohibits protests and the display of banners inside university premises. However, despite this ruling, numerous banners were put up within the university for over 24 hours,” the chancellor said. Subsequently, Khan left the university for Kozhikode airport to catch a flight to Thiruvananthapuram at 5.50 pm.
BJP backs Khan, says he is freeing universities from CPM’s control
Coming out in support of Arif Mohammed Khan amid his tiff with the SFI and the chief minister, BJP state president K Surendran said the governor had initiated steps to restore the independence of universities in the state, and that the CPM was upset as it feared losing control of the varsities. “CPM is upset as the governor’s intervention has ended AKG Centre’s rule in universities,” Surendran told reporters in Aluva on Monday. He alleged that universities in Kerala had been under CPM’s control even when UDF was in power in the state. “Arif Mohammed Khan succeeded in liberating the varsities. His interventions halted illegal appointment of party workers and their relatives as teachers and vice-chancellors,” he said.
SFI to extend protest to other universities
SFI state secretary P M Arsho said the SFI would continue protesting against the chancellor and extend the protest to other universities until he withdraws his nominations of Sangh Parivar supporters to the senates of Kerala and Calicut universities. “We will not let the chancellor saffronise universities in the state,” he added.