Kerala governor Arif Mohammad Khan on Thursday clarified that he will not return as the chancellor and has asked the Pinarayi Vijayan led-government to deal with the notice issued by the Kerala high court seeking clarification on the re-appointment of Kannur vice-chancellor Gopinath Raveendran.
Talking to newsmen Khan said he abdicated his position as the chancellor on December 8 and there is no plan to withdraw the decision. “The court has issued notice to the chancellor, not Arif Mohammad Khan. You know, from Dec 8 onwards I am not the chancellor,” he said, suggesting the tiff with the Communist Party of India (Maoist) or CPI (M) government is far from over.
Earlier, he had asked his office not to accept any files regarding universities in the state. “I am no more in that position. Let the government decide,” he said.
Governor Khan reappointed Raveendran as the Kannur University V-C for four more years on November 24, the first in the state’s higher education sector history, despite the government constituting a search committee to select a new candidate. Khan had pointed out that the government “pressurized him to sign the re-appointment order”.
On December 8, Khan sent a strongly-worded letter to CM Pinarayi Vijayan, saying that he was hurt over the “dipping standard” of the higher education sector and blamed “brazen political interference” as a reason in varsities for this. He asked the government to take up the chancellor’s post if political interference continued and he can’t bend further. He also slammed state higher education minister R Bindhu for prompting Raveendran’s reappointment through several letters.
After the reappointment of Kannur VC, syndicate member Dr Premachandran K and academic council member Shino Jose moved the high court to quash the re-appointment. But on December 15, the court rejected the plea after the government contended that all procedures were met by the governor. After the governor’s outburst, an appeal was filed in the division bench, which sent notices to all respondents, including Khan.
On Thursday, the ruling CPI (M) and opposition Congress took strong exception to the governor’s statements. “If the state assembly wants, the government can take up the role of chancellor, but we want the governor to continue in his post. We hope he will have a rethinking,” said CPI (M) state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan. Congress also said Khan cannot abdicate his power after making all appointments. “He can’t run away from his responsibility like this. After making all appointments, he can’t protest now. It will vitiate the higher education sector further,” said opposition leader V D Satheesan.
The state government has come under heavy criticism recently over the appointment of relatives of party leaders at high positions in the Kannur University. Vijayan’s political secretary K K Ragesh’s wife Priya Varghese was appointed as the associate professor in November this year. Though many contenders to the post questioned her appointment, saying that she did not meet the UGC’s prescribed term of teaching period, she was finally appointed, ignoring six others.
In April this year, the Kerala high court quashed the appointment of party legislator A N Shameer’s wife Shahala as the assistant professor in the university.
Arif Mohammad Khan is the third governor of a non-Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled state where a clash has erupted over the running of state universities.
As per norms of higher education institutions, the governor is chancellor of state universities, same as the president is the chancellor of Central universities. In the past few months, governors of West Bengal (Jagdeep Dhankar), Maharashtra (Bhagat Singh Koshyari) and Kerala (Khan) have taken umbrage, alleging that the state governments were undermining their position as chancellor.
