Assembly passes Bill to appoint CM as Chancellor of state varsities replacing Guv
Kolkata: The state Assembly on Monday passed "The West Bengal University Laws (Amendment) Bill" seeking to replace Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee as the chancellor of all state-run universities.
The Bill was passed after a majority of the members voted in favour of the legislation.Refuting allegations of the BJP that appointing the Chief Minister as chancellor would lead to direct "political interference" in the state's higher education system, Education minister Bratya Basu argued that there is "nothing wrong " with the Chief Minister taking over as the chancellor.
"When you raise an objection to the Chief Minister being the chancellor of state universities, you should be vocal against the Prime Minister too, as he is the chancellor of Visva Bharati. When Morarji Desai was the Prime Minister he refused to act as chancellor of Visva Bharati and the then UGC chairman served as chancellor for three years. If Prime Minister Modi sets precedence by ceasing to act as the chancellor, then we may reconsider our decision of appointing the Chief Minister as chancellor," Basu said. Basu pointed out that in Gujarat where Prime Minister Modi had served as Chief Minister, the appointment of vice-chancellors, as well as the Deans of educational institutions, is done by a Board with the Chief Minister of the state at the helm for several decades.
He alleged that the Governor who is the present chancellor has violated protocols on various occasions and in the case of 16 files pertaining to various appointments in higher education institutions, he has had inhibitions to the government's choice. "We have been at the state government for three terms since 2011. During this tenure, we have had three Governors, but this is for the first time that we have decided to replace the Governor as chancellor," Basu said.
He branded the Governor branding as Twitter chancellor or Twitter-pal (Rajyapal—translated as governor in English) by referring to more than one occasion when the latter had announced his decisions through social media like Twitter, flouting protocols.
Partha Chatterjee, state Parliamentary Affairs minister speaking in favour of the Bill said that the Punchhi Commission report recommends curtailing the powers of the Governors in educational matters. Chatterjee said that Telengana, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu are some of the states that have expressed their disapproval of keeping the Governor as chancellor of universities.
Meanwhile, senior TMC leader Chandrima Bhattacharya said that Suvendu Adhikari, the opposition leader, has again proved that the BJP controls the Governor's office.On Monday Adhikarti reportedly said that the Bill to replace the Governor as chancellor by appointing Chief Minister in his place will not be given clearance and will be sent to the Centre.
Bhattacharya said that Adhikari was not aware of what is a concurrent list in the Indian Constitution and there is no scope for this Bill to be sent to the President as per the Constitution. "I would request him (Adhikari) to go through the article 32 in the state list where university regulatory power has been given to the states," she said.
Advising Adhikari to read the Constitution, she said only those Bills are sent to the Centre where there is any conflict in a Law between the state and the Centre.
She later tweeted: "So-called LoP Suvendu WB EXPOSES HOW BJP 4 India CONTROLS THE OFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR! This is a new low that BJP has reached, proving yet again what we have been saying all along jdhankhar1 is nothing but the mouthpiece of BJP. Shame On BJP."
