SFI (Students Federation of India), the student wing of the ruling Communist Party of India (Marxist), staged a black-flag protest march to Calicut University, ahead of Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan’s arrival at the campus.

The protesters were, however, removed from the spot by the police.
The Governor will be staying at Calicut University Guest House on Saturday and attending various programmes in the district for three days.

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The protests were held days after SFI activists allegedly hit his car in Thiruvananthapuram.
Governor Arif Mohammed Khan claimed that the police have been prevented from acting against the criminals and accused Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan of hatching a conspiracy to hurt him.
“This is not a question of my comment, as I said in the morning; it is about law. We are a democratic republic; here, law must prevail. What they were doing, the police are standing by because of the political reasons they (the Kerala Police) stand by. My car was surrounded and hitting the car by all force,” the governor said.
He further said that he was not scared of anyone. “Due to political reasons, the Kerala Police have been prevented from acting against these rowdies and criminals…My car was surrounded and they were hitting the car with all force. I believe in facing the brute. I am not scared of anyone,” he added.

Meanwhile, police have taken 17 SFI workers into custody, with seven workers being arrested for allegedly hitting the governor’s vehicle. The case has been registered under multiple sections of the Indian Penal Code.

According to a statement from the SFI, the “Governor has appointed senate members in Calicut and Kerala universities from the list of RSS violating the university rules. This is undemocratic. This is an attempt to tie campuses into the RSS shed. SFI was organising a protest against this and we will continue it. The Chancellor nominated members for violating all rules . Our decision is that SFI will not allow the governor to enter any campuses in Kerala. We will take up our protest in that manner. We will strengthen the protests against the governor on the streets. In our agenda, we never aimed to physically attack the governor or take up the protest in a bad manner. Our protest will be in a democratic way. There won’t be any undemocratic protest.