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Thiruvananthapuram | Kerala Higher Education Minister R Bindu supported her cabinet colleague V Sivankutty on Friday over his protest at Raj Bhavan, rejecting allegations that he breached protocol.

She claimed that Sivankutty merely expressed his stance on the Bharat Mata portrait issue in a restrained manner.

On Thursday, Raj Bhavan had strongly criticised Sivankutty for walking out of the programme, organised to distribute 'Scout and Guide Certificates' for school students, while Governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar was present on the dais, calling it a "serious breach of protocol and a grave insult to the constitutional office of the Governor."

Sivankutty, the state General Education Minister, had walked out of an official event at the Raj Bhavan, the Governor's residence, in protest against the display of a Bharat Mata image -- widely used in RSS events -- during the programme.

Defending her cabinet colleague, Bindu alleged that it was the Governor who violated protocol by displaying the portrait and expecting the minister to bow before it.

"It was an undesirable act and totally unacceptable. The minister only indicated his stand in a restrained manner. That is Kerala's stand and that is also the government's stand," she said.

She also alleged that the Raj Bhavan was being turned into a centre of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and for spreading its propaganda.

"What kind of democracy does this represent?" she asked and said that the Raj Bhavan should not be brought down to the stature of an RSS centre.

Amid mounting criticism from the Left government, led by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, over the use of a saffron-clad image at official functions, the Governor had on Thursday firmly stated: "There is no question of doing away with Bharat Mata, as we draw our idea of patriotism and nationhood from Bharat Mata."