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Bengal govt targets Raj Bhawan after varsity registrars skip meeting
The ruling Trinamool Congress has accused the Raj Bhawan of putting pressure on the registrars of the state-run universities to skip a meeting called by education minister Bratya Basu on September 8
The West Bengal government is consulting lawyers to move against the Raj Bhawan, which it has accused of putting pressure on state-run universities to skip a meeting called by education minister Bratya Basu on September 8, a senior official of the education department said on condition of anonymity.
The development comes in the midst of a tussle between the Trinamool Congress (TMC) government and governor C V Ananda Bose, the chancellor of all 31 state-run universities, over the Raj Bhawan appointing several acting vice-chancellors (V-C) without consulting the state. The positions had been lying vacant since May 31 when the tenure of the former V-Cs ended.
“We have information that threats were issued to stop people from attending the meeting. Who is creating an atmosphere of terror? Who is issuing threats?” Bratya Basu told the media after several registrars skipped the meeting that he convened at his office on September 8 to discuss allocation of funds and financial matters.
“We have found some documents which suggest that some of the acting V-Cs asked the registrars of those universities not to attend the meeting,” the education department official said.
Raj Bhawan officials refused to comment on the issue but said that on Saturday night the governor dispatched two confidential letters. One was sent to Nabanna, the state secretariat, while the other was sent to Delhi. However, they did not reveal who the letters were addressed to.
Officials on duty at Nabanna on Sunday could not say if such a letter arrived from the Raj Bhawan.
Earlier this week, chief minister Mamata Banerjee threatened to block funds for state-run universities if they followed the governor’s orders.
“If you interfere in the affairs of any university or, if any university or college takes orders from you, I will create an economic blockade. This is tit for tat. Let me see how you pay the salaries of the university staff. Don’t forget that every expense incurred by the Raj Bhawan is borne by the state,” Banerjee said while addressing a government program on Teachers’ Day on September 5.
From the same dais, she directed state officials to prepare for a legal battle against the Raj Bhavan.
Differences between the government and Bose surfaced in June when he appointed senior professors from 13 universities as V-Cs without consulting the state.
The differences widened in July when Bose appointed Subhro Kamal Mukherjee, a retired chief justice of Karnataka high court, as acting V-C of Kolkata’s Rabindra Bharati University and a retired Indian Police Service (IPS) officer from Kerala, M Wahab, as acting V-C of Kolkata’s Aliah University.
On September 3, Mukherjee was made acting V-C of Kolkata’s prestigious Presidency University as well.
Although rules of the University Grants Commission (UGC) stipulate that only eminent professors with administrative experience can be appointed as V-Cs, there are no clearly laid guidelines on qualifications of acting V-Cs, academicians said.
Reacting to the appointments, the education minister alleged that the governor’s actions were influenced by the INDIA alliance group formed by regional and national parties opposed to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the run-up to the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. The TMC is a part of the coalition.
“The governor is behaving like the judge, the jury and also the executioner,” Basu said on September 8 after several registrars stayed away from the meeting he called.
