Kannur: Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan's nearly hour-long press conference in Kannur on Sunday made one thing very clear. He will not be the first to blink in this unprecedented Chief Minister-Governor battle of wits triggered by a withering letter Governor Arif Muhammad Khan shot off to the Chief Minister saying he was stepping down as Chancellor fed up with political interference.
There was speculation that the Chief Minister would attempt to buy peace with the Governor. Instead, without showing any sign of rancour, Pinarayi Vijayan questioned the motives of the Governor. "It was after due consideration that the Governor appointed a person as the Vice-Chancellor of the Kannur University. After all, he is no greenhorn, he has long years of experience. If such a person has changed his opinion after all this, doesn't it give rise to the suspicion that he has been put under pressure," the Chief Minister said.
He said that only further discussions could reveal what led to the “sudden change of mind of the Governor”. The Governor had said that he approved of the reappointment only because he did not want to be on a collision course with the government.
The Chief Minister, however, conceded that the Governor had some legal doubts about the appointment. “When such legal doubts crop up, the advice has to come from the highest legal authority, which in this case is the advocate general. He was given the AG's advice also,” the Chief Minister said.
He also made it clear that the government would not ask the incumbent Kannur VC, Gopinath Ravindran, to step down. “It is not the government that appoints the VC. That is the prerogative of the Governor,” the Chief Minister said. He also said that the government would give its opinion to the Chancellor. "It is up to the Chancellor to arrive at the right decision," Pinarayi said.
As for the controversy related to the appointment of the Kalady Sree Sankaracharya Sanskrit University, the Chief Minister imputed conspiracy behind the Governor's stand. The Governor's charge was that the Search Committee had given him just one name when UGC Regulations say that the Chancellor should be given a panel of names.
The Chief Minister said that the Search Committee, made up of reputed academicians like V K Ramachandran and K N Panicker and UGC representatives, unanimously opted for one person. He said a panel was given when the members of the committee had different picks. “In this case, the choice was unanimous. Even the UGC representatives had picked the same person,” the Chief Minister said.
However, what could cause serious embarrassment to the Governor was the Chief Minister's 'big reveal'. “I was told that the Governor himself had asked a senior person in the Higher Education Department that there was no need for a panel and to send him the name of the unanimous choice,” the Chief Minister said. “I am not speaking from any documented records but this is what I was told,” he said.
Initially, when the Search Committee gave him just a name, the Governor had asked it for a panel. “And the Search Committee had begun preparations to draw up a panel,” the Chief Minister said. It was then, according to the Chief Minister, that the Governor told a "person in the Higher Education Department' that a single name was enough.
The Chief Minister also flatly denied that the LDF government had interfered in University appointments. “Neither the last LDF ministry nor this one has never illegally interfered in the affairs of universities. It is not our style,” the Chief Minister said. The Governor, in his letter to the Chief Minister, had said that the universities were "packed with political nominees and non-academics are taking academic decisions".
The Chief Minister also did not seem overly perturbed by the Governor's dare to take over the Chancellor's post. "It is not a position we desire,” he said with a smile. “We have never attempted to wrest the authority from the Governor either. We want the Governor himself to remain in that position.
Nonetheless, the Chief Minister said that the decision of the Kalamandalam VC to move the court against the Chancellor was wrong. “We have never approved of this. We asked the VC to withdraw the case and he promptly did so,” the Chief Minister said. The Governor had pointed out that the Kalamandalam VC did so only after six months. “The question is why no action has been taken against him or this misbehavior? Is it, as he claims, due to his active political affiliations?,” the Governor said in his letter to the Chief Minister.
Two other issues that were raised by the Governor were left untouched by the Chief Minister. One, the non-appointment of the faculty for Sree Narayana Guru Open University even after a year of its existence and the non-payment of salary to the VC of the Open University. As Chancellor, the Governor said he had written thrice to the government and there had not been even an acknowledgement.
Two, the proposed amendment to the University Act, which takes away the Chancellor's power to appoint the University Appellate Tribunal.
