Bengal looks to make CM chancellor of its varsities
HT Correspondent
KOLKATA: The West Bengal cabinet on Thursday decided to table a bill in state assembly to replace the governor with the chief minister as chancellor of all staterun universities, education minister Bratya Basu said, a move seen as a fallout of the long-running battle between chief minister Mamata Banerjee and governor Jagdeep Dhankhar.
“The cabinet unanimously decided that the chancellor of all state-run universities will be the chief minister in place of the governor,” said Basu after the cabinet meeting. “This decision will be placed before the legislative assembly in the form of a bill during the next session,” he said.
There has been no reaction from Raj Bhawan to the decision, although it is the governor who has to give his assent to the proposed bill.
According to the governor’s official website, Dhankhar is the ex-officio chancellor of 17 unithis in West Bengal.
“The government will take the ordinance route if the governor does not give nod to the proposed bill,” said a senior minister, who did not wish to be named.the decision was taken because governor Dhankhar in his capacity as chancellor had been raising questions on the selection of vice-chancellors, which is the prerogative of the state, said another Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader, also requesting anonymity.
The opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) reacted sharply to the Bengal cabinet’s decision.
“Mamata Banerjee wants to have all powers in her hands. is one such move in that direction. She wants to run an authoritarian regime where nobody can question her actions. This is a tactic to divert people’s attention from burning issues,” said Bengal BJP’S chief spokesperson Samik Bhattacharya.
Taking a dig at Dhankhar, TMC state general secretary Kunal Ghosh said, “A governor enjoys a constitutional post but this governor is an agent of BJP.”
Former principal of Kolkata’s Presidency College, now a university, Amal Mukhopadhyay said the government’s action will politicise the education system. “The state’s education system will be adversely affected by political interference,” he said.
The governor of the state, in most cases, is the ex-officio chancellor of the universities set up by the respective state.
The TMC government’s acrimonious relationship with Raj Bhawan has been in the news for various reasons ever since Dhankhar was appointed governor in July 2019.