The tiff between Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan and the SFI, the student wing of the CPI-M, resurfaced on Thursday, February 15, after the former's trip to Thrissur was black flagged at five different locations.
At Irinjalakuda in the evening, Khan even stopped his vehicle and stepped out, but the CRPF personnel, who took over his security on January 27, advised him to get inside the car which he did.
“They (SFI activists) needn’t wave black flags... I will come out and face them. If the SFI wishes to talk to me, if they want to hit me or even if they want to attack me, I am ready. It’s the Chief Minister who is behind this. On one hand he sends the SFI against me, and on the other hand he sends the police to arrest them,” Khan told the media.
Khan and Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan have been at loggerheads for a while now. On January 27, things went out of hand when Khan during a visit to the nearby Kollam district staged a protest by sitting on the road for two hours against the ‘lapse’ on the part of Kerala Police for not taking action against SFI protesters who came near his vehicle.
The Centre had intervened on that day itself, as it placed the Governor under Z+ security cover of the CRPF.