Kerala Governor objects to SFI banner against Savarkar on Calicut varsity campus

Kerala Governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar. File photo
| Photo Credit: The Hindu

Kerala Governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar, who is also the Chancellor of State universities, has criticised a banner earlier put up by the Students Federation of India (SFI) on the campus of the University of Calicut at Tenhipalam in Malappuram district.

He was at the university here on Saturday(March 22, 2025) to attend a Senate meeting. A Chancellor attending the Senate meeting is a first-of-its kind in the history of the institution. However, Mr. Arlekar was reportedly taken aback by the banner, which had been put up by SFI activists a few months ago during their protests against Arif Mohammed Khan, the then Governor.

“I was just reading a banner there now. [It read] ‘We need a Chancellor and not Savarkar’. Was Savarkar [an] enemy of this country? [The] Chancellor is here with you. You do whatever you want to do with the Chancellor. But what bad things have Savarkar done? He had never thought of his own affairs, about his home. His house, his family. Never. He always thought of the others. He always tried to give something to the others,” the Governor said.

Mr. Arlekar pointed out that he had not planned to talk on Savarkar at the Senate meeting. “But the banner has compelled me [to talk],” he said. Asking Vice-Chancellor P. Raveendran “to take care of all such things”, he said that “politicisation of the educational system and institutions should not be tolerated”.

There had been reports on Friday (March 21, 2025) that the Vice-Chancellor had issued an order to remove the banners and posters that were put up earlier against Mr. Khan. According to a section of officials, the SFI activists refused to do so and the university security wing’s attempts to take them away also failed.