Thiruvananthapuram: The friction that is already persisting between Governor Rajendra Arlekar and the state government is likely to escalate further following the latest action by Kerala university Vice Chancellor who suspended university registrar on disciplinary grounds over a recent stand off at the senate hall in Kerala university.
State education minister V Shivan Kutty and higher education minister Bindu R has harshly criticised the move and has termed it a ‘shear misuse of power’ as they opined that the Vice chancellor do not have the right to take such a decision which is against the university rules.
V-C Mohanan Kunnummal ordered Anil Kumar’s suspension two days after he submitted a preliminary report, which was critical of the registrar, to Arlekar on the incident. Higher Education Minister R Bindu and the Left-dominated Syndicate questioned the legitimacy of the V-C’s order, while Anil Kumar said he would take legal recourse.
Reacting sharply to the registrar’s suspension, Bindu accused the V-C of misusing his powers. “The Syndicate is the appointing authority of the registrar. The V-C can place the matter before the Syndicate, but he is not empowered to act on his own,” she said.
Alleging that Kunnummal had been given charge of V-C in KU because of his “RSS links”, Bindu also took a dig at the governor. She said “some chancellors” were trying to vitiate the atmosphere in the state’s education sector through their “saffronization attempts” and added such moves would be dealt with appropriately.
Meanwhile, the SFI held a major protest outside the Raj Bhavan on July 3 following the decision by the Vice Chancellor Mohanan Kunnummal to suspend registrar Dr Anil Kumar on disciplinary grounds. SFI raised slogans against the governor saying the Raj Bhavan is not the ‘public property’ of the governor.
SFI activists tried to barge inside the Raj Bhavan, however police resorted to lathicharge and tear-gas dispersing the 300 SFI activists from the premises. With the LDF government dispensation unhappy with the latest action by VC supported by the Raj Bhavan, the matter is unlikely to de-escalate soon.