Sunday turned out to be  a day of black flags, throwing of shoes and thrashing of warring factions of CPI-M and the Congress across Kerala.

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s Cabinet Bus, a luxury coach costing `2 crores came under attack near Perumbavoor by activists of Congress who showed him black flags and flung black shoes at the bus.

The chief minister and his council of ministers were on their way to Kothamangalam as part of Nava Kerala Sadass, the 2024 Lok Sabha election campaign.

The CPI-M activists accompanying the high end custom built bus charged on the Congress workers and thrashed them bleu and black with the help of  policemen. It is reported that the CPI-M leaders had warned the Congress workers that they would be dealt with an iron hand if they dare to show black flags at the chief minister’s bus.

The Congress demonstrators were arrested and taken to the police station with the help of Marxist activists.

There were allegations by the Congress leaders including the local MLA that the injured party workers were denied medical aid.

While Vijayan was at the receiving end at Perumbavoor, Governor Arif Mohammed Khan was shocked to see CPI-M workers waving black flags at him within minutes of the black flag demonstration against the chief minister.

Governor Khan who was on his way to attend an official function was shown black flags by the comrades to protest against saffronisation of education sector by appointing RSS and BJP activists as senate members in the State’s universities. Education Minister Sivankutty, the intellectual face of the CPI-M has declared on Saturday that schools in the State would not use Bharat as prescribed by the NCERT and will continue using the term India as the name of the country.