Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan has reaffirmed his aversion to the state-ruling CPM and its students outfit, SFI. In his latest outburst, Governor Khan stretched it as far as calling the Left party and its backers, terrorists. "You try to overawe people to achieve your political objectives, that is the definition of terrorism," Governor Khan told media persons in Thiruvananthapuram on Friday.
He was responding to questions about the recent assault on the principal of Gurudeva College in Koyilandy by a group of SFI activists. A student leader slapping the principal, Dr Sunil Bhaskar, has put the SFI in a bad light and Governor Khan, who is also the Chancellor of state universities, minced no words in reiterating his dislike for the Left organisation. "My duty as Chancellor is to make the students understand that violence is a negation of not only democracy, but of civilised conduct, and indulging in violence, to my mind, is a serious offence."
Governor Khan said he was giving a free hand to vice-chancellors of universities to impose the rules on campuses. "We're giving a direction to all the vice-chancellors to curb it (violence) with a heavy hand, and not allow anybody to violate the rules and laws of the university inside the campus," Governor Khan said.
On being reminded of the SFI objecting to his recent nominations to the senate of the Kerala University, Governor Khan said: "I'm not scared of them. I'm ready to face these criminals, these brutes, those who try to take the law into their own hands. Certainly, no person with a criminal background and even those who are involved with an organisation which indulges in violence on a regular basis... even those who are not directly involved, but are associated with such a violent organisation, there is no way I'm going to nominate any one of them to any body of the university."
