Chennai:With governor RN Ravi upping the ante by his unilateral actions, the ruling DMK has retaliated to strip his powers as chancellor of universities. The Tamil Nadu Assembly, on Monday, passed a bill that takes away the power of appointing VCs from the Raj Bhavan and vest the same with the government.
This comes close on the heels of Kerala passing a similar bill taking a cue from Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Karnataka. Though such a move was contemplated earlier by late Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa as well, it has come to fruition only now. Bringing the legislation, a poll promise of the DMK, was stated in the governor's address to the assembly.
The DMK government is upset over the governor sitting on many bills pertaining to higher education, including those relating to universities. Right from the bill seeking exemption for Tamil Nadu from NEET, he has been testing the patience of the state government. Even after the assembly had passed the bill for the second time, it was yet to reach the doors of the President. To register its protest over his procrastination, the DMK government boycotted the 'at home' hosted by Ravi on Tamil New Year's Day. Now, the VCs' conference appears to have triggered the move to clip the wings of Raj Bhavan.
Speaking on the bill, Chief Minister MK Stalin said, “the tradition of governor consulting the elected state government in the appointment of VCs has been given up in the last four years with the governor keeping it as his exclusive preserve. Disregarding the state government, which has the duty to provide higher education, this practice of unilateralism has reared its head.”
To buttress his argument, the Chief Minister quoted from the Justice Punchhi Commission,which studied Centre-State relations. “Granting the power not provided in the Constitution to the governor, will result in a clash with regard to powers and functions yielding space for criticism and controversies. Even in Gujarat, the home state of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the power to appoint VCs is vested with the government,” he said and asked the BJP and AIADMK members, who staged a walkout, to support the bill.
The VCs conference has evoked criticism from political parties and academicians as the speakers at the event are UGC chairman Jagadesh Kumar, whose tenure at the Jawaharlal Nehru University witnessed many controversies, and CEO of Zoho Sridhar Vembu, who is close to the RSS. The topics being discussed at the conclave are: “India's role in emerging New World Order '' and “India to be World Leader by 2047”.
However, this is seen as an attempt to sneak in the Centre's New Education Policy. The State Higher Education Minister, who is also the pro-chancellor of the varsities, has not been invited. While in West Bengal, VCs have declined to participate in a meet called by Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar in December last, here all the VCs are in attendance.
Welcoming the Bill, education activist Prince Gajendra Babu said, “the post of Chancellor of state universities that the governor holds is an ex-officio post. Policy decisions are in the domain of the council of ministers and the governor could not impose his will on the people. Governor cannot run a parallel government.”
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