A day after he delivered a “knockout punch” on the CPI(M) Government by refusing to read out the policy statement in the opening day of the 2024 session of the Legislative Assembly, Governor Arif Mohammed Khan struck yet another blow on the Marxists for their attempts to pollute and destroy the sanctity of higher education.
Addressing the Republic Day meeting after unfurling the national tricolour at Central Stadium in Thiruvananthapuram, where the chief minister and the State’s top bureaucrats were in attendance the Governor stressed the need to keep institutions of higher learning free of outside interference. This is seen as a direct message to the Marxists who exert all kinds of pressures on the Governor to clear the appointment of party cadres as vice-chancellors and faculty members in the Universities.
“Outside interference in the affairs of institutions of higher learning is leading to the undermining of their autonomy and leading the youth to take part in activities that pollute the academic environment. The future depends on what we are in our thoughts and actions. For this, we need institutions of higher education which are truly autonomous and free from any outside interference that leads the youth to engage in activities which pollute the academic environment,” said the Governor.
The last few weeks saw the student wing of the CPI(M) staging road siege and black flag demonstrations throughout the State to protest against Governor Arif Mohammed Khan in his open dissidence to sign on orders appointing the dear and near ones of the party leadership in important positions in universities across the State.
The Government of Kerala has filed a suit in the Supreme Court challenging the refusal and delay by the Governor in kowtowing the diktats of the chief minister. But his Republic Day message was an equal measure of compliments and criticism of the track record of the Pinarayi Vijayan Government. The Governor appreciated the government for its commendable performance in dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic and in increasing the number of Primary Health Centers.
He pointed out that the State has become one of the best performers in the Start-up Ranking among the states, stood first in the National Food Safety Index and performed well in eradicating extreme poverty, winning the National Healthcare and Arogya Manthan awards and coming second in the Performance Grading Index (PGI) report for school education.
Chief Minister Vijayan had fielded two powerful CPI(M) leaders to take on the Governor for skipping the entire speech barring the last paragraph on the opening dau of the budget session. Education Minister V Sivankutty went overboard on Friday by declaring that the post of Governor was totally unnecessary and irrelevant. “The Governor spends 70 per cent of the time travelling across the country. Why should the State pay for his expenses? His speech at the Republic Day function was undemocratic and he spent most of the time to praise the Centre. He did not have anything good to say about Kerala,: said Sivankutty, son-in-law of Marxist ideologist late P Govinda Pillai.
M V Govindan, party’s Kerala secretary said on Friday that the Governor’s behavior does not augur well for the position he holds and was against all democratic norms.