CM, ministers skip Governor Khan's Christmas celebrations

Thiruvananthapuram: The rift between Kerala Governor Arif Mohammad Khan and the Left government in the state has made headlines again as the Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and his cabinet members skipped the Christmas celebrations held at the Raj Bhavan on Tuesday. On Tuesday, SFI staged a protest march against the governor when he was attending an evnt at the senate hall of Kerala University.

A source close to Raj Bhavan said that invitations were sent to the CM and all the state ministers for the celebration, but none of them showed up for the event just like last year.

However, prominent persons like K V Thomas, the Kerala government’s special representative in Delhi, Chief Secretary Sarada Muraleedharan, Thiruvananthapuram city police commissioner Sparjan Kumar, Cardinal Cleemis Bava — the Major Archbishop-catholicos of the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church — and various other leaders from the Christian community attended the event. Khan has been at loggerheads with the ruling CPM and its student wing SFI over appointments made by him to some universities of the state in his capacity as Chancellor of universities. The Governor’s recent appointment of vice-chancellors to  APJ Abdul Kalam Technological University (KTU) and the Kerala University of Digital Sciences had invited sharp criticism from the CPM which alleged that Khan bypassed the High Court’s directive in making these appointments.