States fight for control of universities

In the early years of Independence, the Congress, which was in power both at the Centre and in the States, decided to make the Governors the Chancellors of state-owned universities.

The Governor is a constitutional functionary. He is appointed by the Centre. Executive authority of the state is vested in him. But he cannot exercise it on his own. The country’s democratic system requires him to act on the advice of the elected government headed by the Chief Minister.

The Chancellor derives his authority from the state law under which the university is established. It does not require him to act on the advice of the Chief Minister. This means he can act independently of the government. But he still has to keep democratic propriety in mind.

The University Acts have provisions to ensure that the state government has a say in their affairs. However, it is expected to respect the universities’ academic freedom.

The system worked without generating much controversy until the political class started interfering in the working of universities with ulterior motives.

After Narendra Modi came to power at the Centre, trouble brewed in two Central universities, the Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi and the University of Hyderabad which the Bharatiya Janata Party viewed as centres of Left influence.

The prime mover behind the troubles in the two campuses was the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), student affiliate of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the BJP’s ideological mentor. The ABVP targeted Dalit groups in campuses.

Some RSS affiliates have been seeking re-writing of textbooks in the light of the Hindutva ideology.

When Modi sent RSS ideologues to non-BJP states as Governors, the Chief Ministers braced up to face interference by them. Established constitutional procedures gave them some protection against gubernatorial arbitrariness but there was no way to check misuse of the wide powers the university laws gave them in their capacity as Chancellors.

To overcome this situation, Tamil Nadu, currently ruled by the DMK, and West Bengal, ruled by the All-India Trinamool Congress, enacted laws this year to oust the Governor and make the Chief Minister the Chancellor of the state universities.

Kerala, where Communist Party of India (Marxist) Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has been involved in a running battle with the Governor, Arif Mohammed Khan, for months on multiple issues is also considering enactment of a similar law.

The remedy these states have found is worse than the malady. For, installation of the Chief Minister as the Chancellor spells the end of university autonomy.

Material in the public realm indicates that appointment of Vice-Chancellors of universities is one of the issues involved in the spat between Governors and Chief Ministers.

It will be wrong to assume that the elected Chief Ministers are paragons of democratic virtues, and that the Governors are the wrong- doers. Punjab’s Aam Admi Party government are now caught up in a row over appointment of the Vice-Chancellor of a medical university. Under the regulations, a search committee is to be constituted to prepare a panel with at least three names, from which the Chancellor will pick the V-C. The government sent only one name to the Governor, Banwarilal Purohit. He returned it and asked for a panel of names.

The state government aggravated the offence by announcing the V-C’s appointment without waiting for the Chancellor’s approval.

Embarrassed, the V-C withdrew his candidature.

Sending only one name to the Governor to force him to pick its favourite is a mean tactic used also by other state governments, including Kerala’s.

Purohit is no angel. Earlier, he was the Governor of Tamil Nadu, and had appointed 27 V-Cs as Chancellor of the state’s universities. He recently told an interviewer that V-C’s posts were being sold for Rs 400-500 million there. He offered no explanation for not ordering an investigation into the corrupt practice which came to his notice.

The All-India Amma Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam of the late J Jayalalithaan, which had a cosy relationship with the Modi regime, ran the Tamil Nadu government for all but a few months of Purohit’s term as state Governor.

Kerala has witnessed the dirtiest fight between Governor and Chief Minister. The two dignitaries sometimes descended to the level of street fighters. CPI (M) leaders harp on the Governor’s RSS connection and the Governor on the irregular appointment of favourites as V-Cs and faculty members. Unfortunately, the Governor has damaged his own credibility by allowing many of the irregular appointments he is now complaining about.

Some of the issues involved in their fight are now before courts.