Questioning credentials of the officiating vice chancellors appointed by Governor CV Ananda Bose at various state-run universities, Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee accused the ex-officio Chancellor of “flouting the Constitution at will”, albeit without directly naming him.

Speaking at a Trinamul Congress rally in central Calcutta on the occasion of the foundation day of the party’s students’ wing Trinamul Chhatra Parishad, Banerjee’s comments for the Governor sounded more like a warning. “We don’t cross over to your domain, and you do not try to interfere in our businesses. Don’t forget you and the Chief Minister are not the same. You are (holding a) nominated (position) and we are elected (by the people). Don’t try to take on an elected government,” Banerjee remarked.

Abhishek Banerjee touches Mamata's feet upon her arrival at Mayo Road. Twitter/@AITCofficial

“There’s now an umbrella on our heads who doesn’t bother to consult anybody, has little regard for rules and norms. I respect his chair but cannot respect him as an individual since he is flouting the Constitution at will,” the chief minister said, while taking the ongoing state-Raj Bhavan spar a notch higher.

Banerjee continued: “The universities are in chaos, and he is making his friends come and sit in the chairs of VC. IPS officers, who have no training in education and don't adhere to the (University Grants Commission’s) minimum 10-year professorship qualification, have been made to sit as a VC in a university. The president of the BJP cell in Jadavpur has been appointed VC in that university. Can we allow such anarchy to happen?”

The appointments which Banerjee was referring to were perceptively those of M Wahab, a retired IPS officer of the Kerala cadre, who was appointed by Bose in July to dispose the duties of the Vice Chancellor of Aliah University till a full time VC was appointed and Buddhadeb Sau, a professor of the Mathematics department and president of an RSS-backed teachers’ forum, whose appointment as a stop-gap VC at JU was made under same conditions as that of his counterpart in Aliah University in the aftermath of the death of a minor student suspected to be a victim of students’ ragging earlier this month.

Bose, in his capacity as Chancellor of the state-aided universities, has already appointed temporary VCs in at least 11 out of the 27 universities which are running without full-time VCs on account of persisting complications over the constitution of search committees to identify and select candidates for those vacant positions. The state university laws Bill which has been amended and passed in the Bengal Assembly for this purpose awaits the Governor’s assent. The Bill also seeks to replace the Governor as Chancellor of all state-aided universities with the chief minister, by virtue of his/her office.

Meanwhile, the state has simultaneously moved The Supreme Court challenging Bose’s ad-hoc VC appointments on grounds that they violate the provisions of the West Bengal Universities and Colleges (Administration and Regulation) Act, 2017 where the matter is currently being heard.

“I have heard that people are being brought in from outside and dedicated phone lines have been set up at Raj Bhavan for different universities from where calls are being made, officials are being summoned at will,” Banerjee said on Monday in support of her “anarchy” statement.

Banerjee used the opportunity to announce that the pending elections for students unions in colleges would be held post Puja. “Prior to that we will have to make some amendments to the existing law. We will get that done in our next Assembly session,” she clarified.

The chief minister, though, spelt out a rider to that announcement. “You have to promise that you will ensure peaceful elections within the campuses,” she told the assembled students and youth workers of her party, possibly in reference to the multiple campus violence witnessed during union elections during previous occasions. “I have asked the police to arrest those who shouted ‘Goli Maro’ slogans and hate speeches outside Jadavpur University campus,” she said in reference to the BJP protest rally last week and added: “I have strictly instructed the police to ensure that outsiders are kept away from campuses during the elections.”

Abhishek Banerjee. Twitter/@AITCofficial

The party’s national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee strongly advocated in favour of installing surveillance cameras in campuses. Taking a dig at the radical Left students opposing the move, the former youth leader of the party said, “Those who move court at the drop of a hat and demand installations of CCTV cameras inside polling booths and at police custodies are now opposing the installation of those cameras in campuses. It’s simply a legacy they carry forward. Their grandfathers opposed computers, their fathers opposed English and they are now opposing CCTV installation. We will install these cameras no matter what. Mamata Banerjee has promised that no student will lose their lives in future.”

“We renew our pledge today that we will establish ragging-free campuses in Bengal,” the chief minister’s heir-apparent told the students’ gathering.