New Delhi: Couple of hours after Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan requested him to continue as Chancellor of universities, Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan said he had no reason to reconsider his decision. "I will not reconsider unless I am able to safeguard the autonomy of universities unless I am able to advance the cause of higher education in Kerala," the Governor told the media in Delhi on Sunday.
Now that the Chief Minister too has no plans to take over as Chancellor, the Governor was asked about the leadership vacuum at the top of universities in Kerala. "If the government wants to leave the universities orphaned, so be it," Khan said.
The Governor also contradicted the Chief Minister's words earlier in the day. Pinarayi had said that the government had put no pressure on the Governor. The Governor, on the other hand, said that the very act of asking the advocate general to give him a legal opinion in the Kannur VC issue was an attempt to "browbeat me into submitting myself to their views".
He said the process to appoint a new vice chancellor for the Kannur University was already set in motion. "There was pressure on me to scuttle the process in the name of reappointment. But I told them that reappointment was not the same as extension and that procedures should be followed. It was then they brought me the AG's opinion," the Governor said.
"Who asked them to bring me the AG's opinion. I did not ask for it. The AG's opinion was that there was no need to follow the established procedures. He may be right but who asked him to give me the opinion? If I wanted an opinion, I would ask for it," the Governor said.
In the Kalady Sankaracharya Sanskrit University issue, the Chief Minister insinuated that there was hypocrisy in the Governor's stand. While the Governor's public stance was that the Search Committee should legally give him a panel of three members, Pinarayi said the Governor himself had told a Higher Education official that one name was enough.
When this was pointed out, the Governor's response suggested that he was not fully aware of what the Chief Minister said. "Let him say whatever he wants. I strongly uphold the law and the law says that there should be a panel of three names," he said.
When he was further pressed on the issue, the Governor did not seem to fully grasp the import of the question. From what the reporters asked, it looked as if the Governor gathered that the Chief Minister had said that he was 'okay' with just one name. "If I was okay with just one name, I should have appointed the person. I have not acted on the recommendation. And I have sent the file back to the Chief Minister."
It was only later when another question was put to him, that the Governor realised the Chief Minister's charge. "I don't know who that senior official is," he said. "Even if, for argument's sake, I had said it, it was against rules. The recommendation of the search committee should not be in accordance with my wishes, but in accordance with rules," he said.
The Governor hinted that there was something ludicrous about submitting just one name for his consideration. "In fact, I asked this question to the members of the selection committee. There were seven applicants and they (search committee) gave me just one name. They said the other six were not even fit to be considered. If all these six candidates who were professors of at least ten years' standing were incompetent, what kind of talent our higher education system was producing," the Governor asked.
The Governor said that even if the other six were not up to the mark, submitting just one name was not the way to go. "If they had just one quality candidate, they should have actually readvertised the post to rope in more talents. Instead, they recommended just one name, only to tie my hands," the Governor said.
He was also critical of the higher education minister R Bindu, but in a way a teacher would be of perhaps the weakest student in the class. "She is such a poor thing," he said.
He said the minister had come to him and told him that there was a convention that the Chancellor's nominee would be made the VC. "She wanted me to consider the government's candidate (for Kalady University VC) as the Chancellor's nominee," he said. "I told her there was no such convention and if at all there was such a convention I want to break the convention. And then I told her that she should never ever come to me with such requests," the Governor said.
