A forum of former vice-chancellors alleged on Thursday that the governor had “defamed” them while saying he could not renew their tenure as interim VCs because “some of them were corrupt, stood accused of harassing female students and were playing politics”.
Twelve former VCs, who are members of a platform called the “Educationists’ Forum”, alleged at a news conference that what governor C.V. Ananda Bose, the ex-officio chancellor of state-aided universities, said last Thursday in a video message differed from what he had said in early June.
According to the members of the forum, in June the chancellor had said he could not renew their tenures because they had not sent him a weekly review report directly.
Sending such a report directly to Raj Bhavan, bypassing the state education department, would be in contravention of a government directive, the former vice-chancellors said.
In a video message shared by Raj Bhavan on September 7 (last Thursday), 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?”
The forum members said they served a legal notice on the chancellor on Thursday in the light of their alleged defamation.
In a press statement released at the conference, the forum said: “The distasteful comments and accusations of the chancellor without any specific charge and evidence to back his unfounded accusations have harmed the reputation of the eminent scholars and administrators.”
“As such…. there shall be no respite or free pass for the utterances of the chancellor who has displayed a shameless avowal of pride in howling lies against the respected academicians.”
Calls, a text message and an email from this newspaper to the chancellor failed to yield any response.
Om Prakash Mishra, a former interim VC of North Bengal University and one of the members of the forum, said they could not figure out why Bose was dragging the former vice-chancellors in his fight with the education department over who would be appointed to helm an institution.
“Why is he dragging us? He has to tell who is corrupt. Why you are accusing someone of being corrupt? Do you have papers to back it up? Did you make any file notes on this? He simply cannot defame the academicians,” Mishra told reporters.
“As part of our protest, we have sent him a legal notice, telling him to retract what he has said. If he does not do so, a criminal complaint with the cyber crime investigation cell will be filed.”
Asutosh Ghosh, a former interim VC of Calcutta University and Green University, said: “A press release by Raj Bhavan immediately after the appointment of 11 officiating VCs in early June stated that as we did not send the weekly activities report to the Raj Bhavan, we were not considered for extension. This is what we have so far known as the reason behind not getting the extension. But last Thursday, it emerged that we were not retained because we were corrupt, we stand accused of harassing a female student and that we were playing politics.”
“Did we become VCs so we could do all these? My friends and relatives are questioning me about these accusations. How will I face a female student when she comes to know that her teacher faces such a grave accusation? If we don’t protest, people will believe the allegations are true.”
An official of the department said a press release issued by Raj Bhavan late on June 1 said: “The chancellor has extended the services of only those VCs who complied with the instructions to send activity reports to the chancellor for review. Those who did not comply with the instructions are not considered for extension as independent evaluations reveal that their value addition to the university remains vague....”
Mishra iterated on Thursday that they did not send the report as a law enacted by the state government in December 2019 stated such reports would have to be routed through the education department.