Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, June 13: For the first time in the country, a chief minister will become ex-officio chancellor of the universities in the state instead of the governor. The West Bengal assembly on Monday passed a bill that makes the Chief Minister – and not the Governor – Chancellor of all state universities in Bengal, a fall-out of the never-ending feud between the ruling Trinamool Congress and the former BJP card holder governor.
BJP legislators protested but the protest was lost by just 40 votes against the bill with 183 in favour. The move had earlier been cleared by the state Cabinet in the backdrop of Governor Jadgeep Dhankhar’s running feud with the chief minister and clash with the state government over appointments of vice-chancellors across universities.
The Bill will now need the Governor’s clearance and Dhankhar is certain to refuse to give his assent but he is constitutionally bound to act on the advice of the Cabinet. However, there have been instances where Governors in opposition-ruled states have sat over bills not in tandem with the central ruling party’s wishes, for a long time and sent them to the President for further blocking.
So far, the governor, by virtue of his position, is the Chancellor of all state-run universities. Last month Tamil Nadu had passed a bill empowering the state government to take over the Governor’s power of appointing vice-chancellors to universities.
West Bengal education minister Bratya Basu, after introducing The West Bengal University Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2022 in the House, said there was “nothing wrong” with the chief minister taking over as the chancellor. “Why can’t the chief minister be the chancellor of state universities if the Prime Minister is the chancellor of a central university – Visva Bharati? You can go through the recommendations of the Punchhi Commission…The governor, who is the present chancellor, has violated protocols on various occasions,” Basu said.
The development is likely to draw a fresh battle-line between Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who also heads the ruling Trinamool Congress, and Dhankhar, who the state’s ruling party leaders have accused of working with the centre to harass the Mamata Banerjee government on key issues.
By law, the Governor is the Chancellor of 17 universities in the state, according to the Bengal Raj Bhavan’s official website. Some of them are the University of Calcutta, Jadavpur University, University of Kalyani, Rabindra Bharati University, Vidyasagar University, the University of Burdwan and North Bengal University, among others.
For Visva-Bharati in Santiniketan, the university established by the Nobel Laureate poet Rabindranath Tagore, the Governor is the Pradhana (Rector), and the Prime Minister of the day, now Narendra Modi, is the Chancellor. In January this year, Dhankhar alleged that Vice Chancellors of 25 state universities in Bengal were appointed without his consent. Opposing the bill, the opposition BJP alleged that appointing the Chief Minister as Chancellor would lead to direct “political interference” in the state’s higher education system.
“The state government wants to control everything. The decision to appoint the CM as Chancellor of universities is being taken to facilitate direct interference of the ruling party in the state’s education system,” BJP MLA Agnimitra Paul alleged.