West Bengal governor Jagdeep Dhankhar, who went to north Bengal for a week-long visit, attacked the state government on Sunday suggesting that that the Bengal chief minister should be made the governor of the state.
He was responding to a statement by state education minister Bratya Basu who had suggested on Friday that the chief minister should be made the interim chancellor of state-run universities.
“You make the chief minister the governor also in addition to making her the chancellor,” Dhankhar said while speaking to reporters at Bagdogra airport in north Bengal.
Earlier this month, Kerala governor Arif Mohammad Khan had written to chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan expressing his disappointment over alleged political appointments in universities and urging the latter to amend the law and appoint himself as the chancellor.
The Prime Minister is the chancellor of central universities; while the governor of a state is the chancellor of state-run universities.
“It is high time to introspect whether we should continue with the colonial legacy of the Governor being the Chancellor of Universities just by the virtue of his post or we should nominate eminent scholars and educationists as Chancellors,” Basu had tweeted.
Dhankhar assumed charge on July 30, 2019. The acrimonious relationship between the governor and the TMC government has been in the news since September that year.
It all started when, earlier this month, the governor had called a meeting of chancellors and vice-chancellors of private universities in the state in his capacity as visitor. Most of the vice-chancellors, however, didn’t turn up. An attempt to hold the meeting again on Thursday also fell through following which Dhankhar had attacked the state education department.
“Education scenario @MamataOfficial worrisome as no Chancellor & VC of Pvt Univ turned up for meeting with Governor-Visitor. Shocking unionism,” he had tweeted.
The state education minister, however, responded saying that the role of the Governor, as ‘visitor’ of private universities was only ceremonial and he has no controlling authority over them.
“So, instead of meddling in their affairs, he would better mind his constitutional business. # stick to the Constitution please,” Basu had tweeted.
BJP national vice-president Dilip Ghosh alleged that the Mamata Banerjee government is trying to turn the governor into a rubber stamp.
“This is not good for the Constitutional setup,” Ghosh said.
