Alleging that Raj Bhavan has become a political agency of BJP and RSS, CPI-M general secretary Sitaram Yechury, on Tuesday, said the BJP was using the office of the governor to destroy Kerala’s higher education sector to meet their political ends.

Inaugurating the Raj Bhavan march organised by the ruling Left Front backed ‘Vidyabhyasa Samrakshana Koottayma’ (education protection committee), here  on Tuesday in protest against Governor Arif Mohammed Khan’s recent interventions in the functioning of universities in the state, Yechuri alleged that Sangh Parivar outfits are using the office of the governor to impose their ideology on universities.

“Education is under the concurrent list of the Constitution and the states have equal rights on it. However, in all matters of education, the BJP-led Central government is bypassing the states,” Yechuri said.

Higher educational institutions stand for scientific temperament, humanism and tolerance but these are not suited to turn the country into a monolithic ‘Hindu rashtra’ so that saffron forces target them by using the Raj Bhavan, Yechuri asserted.

“In a ‘Hindu rashtra’, there is no place for scientific temperament and free thinking. That is why Sangh Parivar forces are targeting institutes of higher education throughout the country,” Yechury contended.

The CPM leader alleged that controlling education was a very important aspect of the political design of the BJP and the RSS to convert secular democratic India into a fascist Hindutva rashtra of their liking. For this reason, he said they require control over the education and consciousness of our youths.

He said the role of the governor as a constitutional head of the state is now being reduced to that of an office advancing the political objectives of the central government and the ruling BJP. This is not the role of the governor as laid down in the constitution, he added

Stating that Governor Arif Mohammad Khan is taking undemocratic measures, the CPI-M general secretary said the chancellor, who is supposed to act on the instructions of the elected government, instead acts on his own accord

Thousands of ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF) workers marched to the Raj Bhavan here on Tuesday, raising slogans against Governor Khan and accusing him of ‘destroying’ the higher education sector. Chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan and ministers, holding constitutional positions, did not participate in the march

Speaking about the protests march staged by the Left Democratic Front (LDF) workers towards Kerala Raj Bhavan, against the Governor’s recent actions, Arif Mohammed Khan said everybody has the right to protest, protests are democratic, but nobody can threaten or intimidate him with such actions.

He said he was not the type of person who can be pressurised. “If they think that I can be pressurised or threatened, they are mistaken. I only questioned illegal appointments and nepotism in universities. That is what the apex court and High Court upheld recently. All are bound to go by the law of the land,” governor Khan told media persons in New Delhi

He alleged that universities in Kerala have become fiefdoms of the party cadre and their relatives. He asked as to whether there is any other state in the country where 100 per cent of appointments have been made  in violation of the law.