Kerala Governor seeks President's attention on gold smuggling amid tensions with CM Vijayan

Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan, further intensifying his conflict with the Left government, on Thursday said he is gathering information to send a letter to the President of India regarding Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan's statement about large-scale gold smuggling through an airport in the state.

He said gold smuggling is a crime against the nation and the Chief Minister had kept him in the dark about such anti-national activities happening in the state.

"These are not routine matters. The Chief Minister never reported the issue to me. He himself had said that gold smuggling is a crime against the nation but he never reported this issue to me. He gave an explanation only after I wrote to him, saying that gold smuggling is being handled by the Customs and I should talk to the Central Government regarding this. He never told me this before," Governor said.

"If the Chief Minister gives all these details about large scale smuggling of gold which definitely is a crime against the nation, not just Kerala, then is it not my duty to report this matter to the Hon'ble President? I am duty bound to report this matter because the Government has kept me totally in the dark about it," Khan said.

Referring to the CM's statement in a press conference in which he said about gold smuggling through Karipur airport in Malappuram district, Khan said, "I am still gathering some more information. I am not going to write anything on my own, but only saying what the Chief Minister has said in the press conference".

His statement came a day after the Chief Minister asserted that the responsibility for preventing gold smuggling lies with the Customs Department, which operates under the Union Finance Ministry, and not with the state government.

In a letter addressed to Governor Khan, Vijayan had urged the former to raise the matter with the union government.

The Chief Minister's letter came in response to Khan's letter a day earlier, in which he accused Vijayan of 'silence, inaction, and inordinate delay' regarding his request for information about reports regarding alleged anti-national and anti-state activities in the state funded by groups involving gold smuggling.

Responding to queries about whether there is a constitutional mandate for the Chief Minister to report state matters to the Governor, Khan on Thursday said that these are not routine issues and questioned whether he should not be informed about such anti-national activities.

He said the state is duty bound to report routine matters to the Governor.

Khan alleged that the Chief Minister refused to send the Chief Secretary and DGP when he summoned them.

The Governor said that he has been operating solely according to the Constitution, while the government has failed to do the same.