VC appointments at two technical universities reflect tacit Guv–CM understanding: Congress general secretary

Thiruvananthapuram: Congress general secretary K C Venugopal on Wednesday alleged that the VC appointments to two state-run technical universities indicated a tacit understanding between the Kerala Governor and Chief Minister, raising questions about their professed differences.

The Congress general secretary was referring to the announcement that Dr Ciza Thomas would be appointed Vice Chancellor of the APJ Abdul Kalam Technological University, while Dr Saji Gopinathan would take charge as VC of the Kerala University of Digital Sciences, Innovation and Technology.

Venugopal claimed that Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan was earlier opposed to Thomas' appointment as vice chancellor (VC) of Kerala University, which was apparent from the allegedly state-sponsored SFI protest against her.

Similarly, Governor Rajendra Vishawanath Arlekar , as Chancellor of universities in the state, had given detailed reasons against the appointment of Dr Saji Gopinath as VC of the technical university . "Now, suddenly, all those reasons and objections of the Governor and the CM have gone up in smoke. Why is that? Was there a direction from the top? It is clear from all this that there is an 'antardhara' (tacit understanding) between them. They have compromised in order to fool the people. This is very serious," Venugopal, also the Congress MP from Alappuzha, claimed.

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He said that the decision came just days ahead of the Supreme Court taking up the issue on December 19 and deciding who should be the VCs of the two universities. Last week, the Apex Court noted that repeated efforts to break the impasse had failed. Observing the continuing deadlock, the top court had asked a committee headed by retired Supreme Court judge Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia to recommend one name each for the two posts.

The court had noted that despite exchanges of letters and meetings between the government and the chancellor, no consensus had been reached. The bench had said that it was "unfortunate" that the stalemate continued and decided to step in to ensure appointments were made. The dispute had its roots in disagreements over the role of the chief minister in the selection process and objections raised by the governor to some of the names recommended by the state government.

The issue had led to litigation in the Kerala High Court and later the Supreme Court, with both sides accusing each other of delaying the appointments. The Supreme Court had earlier warned that it would intervene if the chief minister and the governor failed to resolve the matter amicably.