No more need for Chief Secretary and DGP to come to Kerala Raj Bhavan, says Governor

Thiruvananthapuram, Oct 11 (IANS) A day after he accused Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan of having "no credibility", Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan on Friday said the Chief Secretary and the state Director General of Police need not come to his official residence again.  

There has been a long-standing cold war between the Governor and the Chief Minister, but, for the past few days, the former has been active in the wake of Vijayan's purported comments, in an interview to a national daily, that the Malappuram district was the hub of gold smuggling and that the money was being used for ‘anti-state’ and ‘anti-national’ activities. Though the Chief Minister denied the comment, the Governor had asked both the Chief Secretary and the DGP to meet him to brief him about the statement.

"You (media) please tell me, is it not the duty of the CM to inform me about it as it is a very grave issue and not a routine administrative matter? I wrote to him and it was after 27 days, he replied to my letter which is a contradictory one. It was because of that I asked the Chief Secretary and the DGP to come to my office.

"Since the two did not turn up, it means the CM has something to hide. It’s my duty to report this to the President, which I will be doing. Since the two did not come, now they need not come again," a peeved Khan told the media.

The fresh trouble over the issue of gold smuggling in the state began last month after Left-backed Independent Legislator P.V. Anvar accused then ADGP, Law and Order M.R. Ajith Kumar, along with P. Sasi, the Political Secretary to Vijayan, of being the main actors responsible for the racket.

The Governor also took potshots at Vijayan, as he said that his secretary (now retired senior IAS officer M.Sivasankar) was in jail. Sivasankar was jailed after the prime accused in the now infamous Kerala gold smuggling case Swapna Suresh had mentioned his role in the incident.

However, state CPI-M Secretary M.V.Govindan slammed Khan for his outbursts. "The Governor’s five-year term ended on September 5 and now he is only a caretaker Governor and he need not come out with threats. The CPI-M has survived even more threats and hence it's better that he behaves," said Govindan.