“You are trying to demean the office of the Governor… playing with every trick to pressurise and frighten me. I am happy that the chief minister has come out openly,’’ Khan told the media in Kochi Saturday.
Taking on Khan over his statement that he would not allow legalising alleged illegal appointments of kin of the personal staff of the chief minister and other ministers in universities, Vijayan had termed the Governor’s challenge as “nonsense” and questioned his right to speak in such a manner.
Referring to the appointment of the wife of CPI(M) leader K K Ragesh, who is the private secretary to Vijayan, as an associate professor of Malayalam at Kannur University, Khan had alleged that the controversial posting was with the knowledge of the chief minister.
Khan brought up the protest against him at the venue of the inauguration of the Indian History Congress in Kannur in 2019 where there was a bid to disrupt his address after he had openly supported the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).
Referring to the incident, Khan said: “A deliberate attempt was made on my life. It was a cognisable offence in which police could suo motu register a case. The shirt of my ADC was torn. Nobody can try to intimidate the Governor, which is an offence punishable by seven years of jail term. But what prevented the police from registering the case? Who holds the home department?’’ the Governor said in a veiled attack on the chief minister.
CPI(M) state secretary M V Govindan said that the Governor is in despair over not materialising something which he had expected to gain. “People have to doubt whether he is functioning as per the Constitution. He should have maintained self-restraint and should have refrained from unleashing baseless campaigns against the government,’’ said Govindan.
Meanwhile, Congress MLA and Opposition Leader V D Satheesan termed the tension between the Governor and the government a “drama”. “There is a constitutional crisis in the state. The Governor has been supporting all illegal decisions of the state government. Khan is a bridge between the CPI(M) and RSS,’’ he said.