The Bengal governor on Thursday tried to suggest in a video message that he was appointing university vice-chancellors on his own because he wanted to root out corruption in the university system and that his fight would go on.
C.V. Ananda Bose, who is the ex-officio chancellor of all state-aided universities, has been appointing officiating people of his personal choice to “discharge the duties” of a vice-chancellor over the past few months.
In the video message shared by Raj Bhavan, where he spoke in Bengali interspersed with English, Bose said: “You may desire to know why I could not appoint those nominated by the state government as interim vice-chancellors. The truth is some were corrupt, some stand accused of harassing a female student, some were playing politics.”
“Now tell me, brothers and sisters, will the interim VC be one who is corrupt? One who will harass a female student? Tell me, brothers and sisters. Tell me.... I am pledging in the name of Rabindranath Tagore, I am pledging in the name of Swami Vivekananda that I will fight this till the last moment. Ten crores of brothers and sisters are with me. They want campuses and education system to be free of corruption.”
The governor went on to allege that five officiating VCs resigned after being threatened by the state government.
Among those Bose has appointed on his own are a former judge and a retired police officer who have allegedly never been professors. The UGC mandates at least 10 years of professorship for a full-term VC candidate.
Bose said he had to appoint the interim VCs as the Supreme Court had struck down the appointment of VCs by the state government on the ground of “illegality”.
“We need a vice-chancellor, that is ‘upacharya’, to run the universities in a smooth manner. The Bengal education ministry has appointed VCs. Supreme Court ordered ‘You are wrong, government, you are wrong’. Supreme Court said ‘Your action, government, is illegal, illegal, illegal, in capital letters’. All the vice-chancellors had to go, had to resign,” Bose said.
“Now who will become VC? In this situation, I had to appoint interim VCs... The education ministry said this was wrong. Calcutta High Court said I was right.”
On October 11, 2022, the Supreme Court upheld a Calcutta High Court judgment quashing the reappointment of Sonali Chakravarti Banerjee as VC of Calcutta University. The apex court said “allowing such actions would be antithetical to the rule of law”.
The apex court said in its order: “The state government chose the incorrect path under Section 60 by misusing the ‘removal of difficulty clause’ to usurp the power of the chancellor to make the appointment of CU VC.”
Jagdeep Dhankhar was the chancellor when the state government had reappointed Chakravarti Banerjee for a period of four years in June 2021.
Education minister Bratya Basu, after a meeting with the chancellor on February 28 this year, said in a joint press conference attended by Bose: “The observation of the Supreme Court with respect to a university created uncertainty about the fate of 23 VCs. Chief minister Mamata Banerjee has a few days back advised that we speak to the governor about this.”
As part of this, it was decided that the 23 VCs would tender their resignations and would be given a further interim appointment for three months and the state government would initiate the process to appoint full-term VCs through a search committee acknowledging the chancellor’s role and including a UGC nominee.
A higher education department official said the trouble started when the chancellor started appointing interim VCs unilaterally in June and decided to sit on a bill that the state government passed in the Assembly for the appointment of permanent VCs.
On June 28, the high court struck down a PIL challenging the appointment of VCs by the chancellor.
Five of the officiating VCs have so far resigned.
Bose said: “It is regrettable that the five VCs had to resign. Why? Why? Why? They have told me goons were threatening them. The education ministry was intimidating them. Senior IAS officers were pressurising them. This is what the VCs told me in confidence before they resigned. I did not ask anyone to resign. They resigned out of fear.”
Bose told reporters on Thursday that chief minister Mamata Banerjee could hold a protest within the Raj Bhavan premises if she wanted.
On Tuesday, Mamata had said in an address that she would stage a protest outside Raj Bhavan if Bose continued to meddle in university affairs.