The Calicut University campus on Sunday night witnessed dramatic scenes with SFI activists displaying the banners against Governor Arif Mohammed Khan that were removed by the police acting on his instruction.

Infuriated by the banners, the governor came out of the guest house where he was staying at around 6.45 pm and started shouting at the police officials, including Malappuram Superintendent of Police S Sasidharan.

“Is the SFI running the university? You want to insult me… Will you allow this if the chief minister was staying here,” he asked the police officials.

The Governor summoned Vice-Chancellor M K Jayaraj to the guest house and spoke to him. He then directed the police officials to remove the banners immediately. Following this, the SP and other police officials removed the banners.

Later, SFI workers returned the banners reading ‘Mister Chancellor, this is Kerala’, and ‘Down with the Chancellor’. They even burnt an effigy of the governor. On the other hand, a banner put up by pro-BJP activists welcoming Governor Arif Mohammed Khan.

Meanwhile, the Raj Bhavan issued a press release strongly condemning the display of the SFI banner at the university while squarely blaming Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan for the development. It alleged that the banners came up at the command of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.

The press release further said that the governor had taken “serious note of the action of the state police on the direction of the chief minister, in placing defamatory posters on the campus of the Calicut University. “Hon’ble Governor feels that this cannot happen without the direction of the Chief Minister and that this is the beginning of the collapse of the Constitutional machinery in the state,” the press release read.

Taking up the challenge of SFI, a student wing of the CPI-M which has vowed not to allow Governor Khan to set foot on any university campus in the state, the governor reached the Calicut University campus on Saturday evening. He decided to stay on the campus for three days.

Initially, he had planned to stay at the government house in Calicut. However, after the SFI challenge, he shifted to the university guest house.