Pro TMC forum of academics slam Governor for demanding Education minister's removal

Kolkata: A day after the West Bengal Governor C V Ananda Bose sought the removal of Education minister Bratya Basu from the state cabinet, a pro-TMC platform of academics on Friday accused him of targetting the minister for "exposing" his recent alleged action in undermining the role of state-run universities.

The governor on Thursday said Basu has "deliberately" violated the election Model Code of Conduct (MCC) by holding a meeting with politicians at the University of Gour Banga recently, and asked the state government to remove him from the cabinet.

The minister described Bose's recommending his removal from the cabinet as "laughable" and said that the Governor "misused his constitutional post and proved his political identity".

In a statement the Educationists Forum said as "the pretention and deliberate misrepresentation of rules by the Chancellor has been fully exposed" by the Higher Education department of the government, the Chancellor has now "targeted the minister and most ridiculously sought his removal.".

The forum was referring to the recent order of the department which cited the 2019 Act passed by the assembly enabling state universities to communicate with the Higher Education department for any academic and administrative decision without keeping the governor in the loop.

"It seems that the Chancellor/ Governor has forgotten that our country has a parliamentary system of government where popularly elected representatives form the government and that he has no role in this regard," the statement signed by Prof Omprakash Mishra and Prof Ranjan Chakrabarti on behalf of the forum said.

The forum further accused Bose of hatching a planned conspiracy to undermine and demolish higher education in the state by his recent action.

The governor is bound by the Act and Statutes and cannot be allowed to continue "misusing" his authority in an illegal manner indefinitely, Mishra said.

"By deliberately defying and bypassing the founding Acts and statutes of the universities and promoting discord and disharmony between the universities and the state government, the governor as chancellor has attempted to run a parallel administration in the university system of the West Bengal," the statement said.

Referring to the "report card" of the chancellor issued by Raj Bhavan on April 3, the forum said Bose is confusing the two roles as the chancellor with the governor of a state.

"Instead of appreciation of the clarifications and instructions of the state government to the universities, the chancellor is misquoting and selectively citing some of the orders of the high court and the Supreme Court. Most importantly, however, he is yet to cite any legal provisions that empower him to authorise persons of his choice to perform the duties of the VCs," the statement said.

On the passage of the bill in the state assembly in past making the chief minister the chancellor which is yet to be signed by Raj Bhavan, the pro-TMC educationists body said Raj Bhavan "knows well that the governor has already been substituted by the chief minister as the chancellor of the universities through the legislative process in the assembly and that he is using the office of the governor to sit indefinitely on the bill..

The forum accused the governor of misuse of authority, illegal authorisation, demolition of authority structure in the 31 state universities, and arbitrary removal of authorised VCs.