Kerala Governor seeks FM Balagopal's ouster; Pinarayi says nothing doing

Kerala Chief Minister has expressed full confidence in state finance minister KN Balagopal after Kerala Governor Arif Mohammad Khan on Tuesday wrote to the CM seeking the minister’s removal from the cabinet.

Khan had said the he has ‘withdrawn his pleasure’ for Balagopal to continue in the cabinet as the minister had “deliberately violated the oath and undermined the unity and integrity of India”. He cited media reports of Balagopal’s statement at function in support of his charge.

Also read: Kerala Governor’s ‘withdrawal of pleasure’ remark draws flak from all corners

‘Full confidence in Balagopal’

According to sources, the CM office replied to the governor saying that after “analysing the speech delivered by K N Balagopal, it is understood that he has not violated the democratic and constitutional principles. There is no wrong doing from his part and the chief minister/ government has full confidence in Balagopal as the finance minister of the State.”

According to media reports, Balagopal had said at the function that “those who come from places like UP, may find it tough to understand universities in Kerala. Security guards of the vice-chancellor of Banaras University had shot down five students. Then I was an MP and had gone there. The vice-chancellor had 50 to 100 security guards. This is the situation in many universities there.”

Governor takes affront

The governor said that “these remarks of Balagopal seek to create a wedge between Kerala and other states of Indian Union and project a false impression as if different states of India have different systems of higher education.”

This is the latest in the tussle between Khan and the state government. The two have been at conflict since over a year when in November last year Khan resisted the reappointment of Gopinath Ravindran as the Kannur University’s vice-chancellor. While the governor is questioning the LDF government on various matters, the state government says he is creating controversies at the behest of the Centre.

Khan’s threat

On October 17 this year, Khan had threatened to sack ministers who ‘lower the dignity’ of the governor’s office. “The CM and Council of Ministers have every right to advise Governor. But statements of individual ministers that lower the dignity of the office of the Governor can invite action including withdrawal of pleasure,” he had tweeted.

Also read: Kerala HC allows VCs to stay; ball then rolls back into Governor’s court

Just a couple of days back, Governor in a controversial order had asked vice-chancellors of nine state universities to quit. He had claimed that the state government had no authority to appoint university VCs and ordered nine appointed by the state government to quit. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan asked the VCs to stay put and ignore the order.

Later, the Kerala High Court allowed the VCs to continue until the Chancellor made a final decision based on follow-up actions on the show-cause notices served to the VCs.