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education ministry had objected to statement. alter the academic landscape of the
the circular even though Raj Bhavan In July 2022, Dhankar set a prec- state, where TMC party cadres have
had stressed that the chancellor’s pri- edent by appointing Dr. Mahua almost destroyed education institu-
ority is to safeguard the best interests Mukherjee, professor, Department tions. The frequent clashes between
of students. According to Prof. Om of Dance, as Vice Chancellor of the the state government and governor
Prakash Mishra, former interim VC Central government funded Rabindra are the latest worry of bona fide aca-
of North Bengal University, “the gov- Bharati University (RBU) despite ob- demics about the future of the state’s
ernor by no means has a legal author- jections from the TMC government. once vaunted higher education system,
ity to directly communicate with the In anticipation of this initiative, the at a time when Bengal’s school educa-
VCs or ask for reports”. TMC government passed a Bill in the tion system is mired in a multi-crore
Former VCs, whose services were state legislative assembly to appoint teacher recruitment scam which has
not extended, released a press state- the Chief Minister as chancellor of stalled new appointments of teachers.
ment on June 2, a day after the ap- all state government universities. But In a statement, the Jadavpur Uni-
pointment of the interim VCs, saying Dhankar refused to give his assent versity Teachers’ Association (JUTA)
that only three VCs who submitted to the West Bengal University Laws says it is stunned by the “blatant dis-
weekly reports to Raj Bhavan have (Amendment) Bill, 2022. Likewise in play of state power to register its he-
been retained. Against all other vacan- Tamil Nadu, the DMK government gemonistic control over educational
cies, new interim VCs have been ap- passed a Bill expressly permitting institutions”. “First the state govern-
pointed. “VCs cannot be made scape- the state government to appoint vice ment tried to wrest absolute control
goats in a tussle between the governor chancellors of universities. Here too, over the education sector, and now it
and government. We regret to inform the governor has declined to give his is facing Central government retalia-
you that VCs have never been treated assent to translate the Bill into an Act. tion. In such face-offs the interests of
like this previously and never has the Back home, monitors of West Ben- students suffer,” says Partha Pratim
office of the Chancellor stooped so low gal’s unruly political scene, believe Roy, general secretary of JUTA.
in the history of our state,” said the that this stand-off will significantly Baishali Mukherjee (Kolkata)

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