New Delhi: Hours after Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan took a dig at the Kerala Governor, saying the latter spends very little time in the state, Arif Mohammed Khan shot back saying such comments "speak very poorly" of those who do not invite him to Onam celebrations.
During his speech at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi as part of the LDF protest against the Centre, Pinarayi accused the governor of using his post to sabotage the functioning of universities.
But Khan said the chief minister and his cabinet did not even apologise for pressuring him to reappoint Gopinath Ravindran as the vice-chancellor of the Kannur University. “They have no sense of shame,” Khan said.
He said that he had initially told the government that it was not right to pressure him to re-appoint Ravindran, "but they came with the opinion of the Advocate General and I okayed it". "But the Supreme Court made him vacate the post. Instead of saying sorry for what they pressured me to do, people who do not have any sense of shame, say anything they like," Khan told reporters in New Delhi.
When reporters sought his reaction to Pinarayi's comment that the Governor spends very little time in the state, Khan said that all his programmes are approved by Rashtrapati Bhavan. "So, in fact, people who do not invite the Governor even for the Onam celebrations making this complaint speaks poorly of them," he said.
Vijayan had also said that if at all Khan does come to Kerala, he does not have time to read out the entire Governor's address in the assembly. "But, he has time to sit on the road and create a scene," Pinarayi mocked, referring to Khan's recent sit-in protest against SFI activists.
(With PTI inputs)
