Congress rubbishes Khan’s claims on ‘attempt on life’

KANNUR:WITH the much-hyped press conference by Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan, which was supposed to drop a ‘bomb shell’ on Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan turned out to be a damp squib, the organisers of the Indian History Congress (IHC) rubbished the former’s allegations that there was an atempt on his life at the 2019 IHC conference at Kannur University.

According to the Indian History Congress secretary Dr P Mohandas, adequate security was provided to the Governor at the venue.

“We had spent more than Rs8 lakhs for the security arrangement,” Mohandas said.

Mohandas admited that there were protests against the Governor.

“It was against Khan’s remarks on the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). But, it was not a premeditated atack as Khan makes it out to be. The Indian History Congress had no part in it, and the protestors were removed switly,” Mohandas said.

Regarding the alleged assault on the Governor by noted historian Irfan Habib, Mohandas pointed out that Habib and Khan are friends.

He said it was him and the university vicechancellor who stopped Habib.

In his ongoing tussle with the Let Democratic Front (LDF) government led by Communists, Khan raked up the unruly scenes he faced three years ago to blame Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan for ‘ignoring’ the alleged atempt on his life.

He even went to the extent of alleging that 91-year-old Professor Habib and Kannur University Vice Chancellor Gopinath Ravindran conspired to endanger his life.

He said that chief minister gave instructions not to book case against the protesters who ‘posed danger to his life’ at the IHC conference.

On Monday, however, Khan failed to raise allegations against the chief minister, but charged that KK Ragesh, private secretary to the chief minister, ‘stopped police from taking action against the protestors.’ Ragesh (member of parliament at that time) was one of the organising officials of 80th edition of IHC.

Deviating from the official text of the speech,

Governor Khan opted for extempore response to some of the earlier speakers, including Ragesh, who referred to contemporary political developments, including the protests against the CAA across the country.

Ater Dr Amiya Kumar Bagchi, the newly elected chair of the Indian History Congress, concluded his address, Khan started his speech.

When the governor touched upon the subject of the CAA and defended the Union government of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), some participants started raising their voices in protest. Security officials intervened and brought the situation under control.