Politics has claimed the quality of Kerala’s higher education. The standards are at an all time low and no meaningful research is coming out of its universities

Kerala is undergoing a turmoil and political churning process. Governor Arif Mohammed Khan, who is described by the general public as the most popular first citizen the State has seen in the last two decades, is being waylaid and attacked by the ruling CPI-M and their student wing, the SFI. The charge against the Governor is that he is acting as a hitman of the RSS and saffronising the institutions of higher learning. The attacks against him saw a sudden spurt since Saturday evening as SFI activists showed black flags at the fleet of cars accompanying the Governor.What irked the CPI-M leadership was Arif Mohammed Khan’s stance against the party’s move to appoint fellow travellers, card-holding members of the party and relatives of party leaders as vice-chancellors and faculty members in the State’s universities. The Governor’s stance was vindicated by the Supreme Court which in a recent judgment declared as null and void the appointment of Gopinath Raveendran, the Marxist historian as the vice chancellor of Kannur University. The apex court is in the process of hearing an appeal filed by the UGC, Save University Campaign Committee and an aggrieved teacher against the appointment of the spouse of a CPI-M leader in the same university as an associate professor. The face-off between the Governor and Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has led to a situation where the universities in the State remain without vice chancellors for the last year. The SUCC, a body consisting of academics, veteran educationists and former teachers, allege that all appointments in the State’s universities are made at AKG Centre (the imposing State headquarters of the CPI-M at the capital city) and the Governor is forced to sign on dotted lines. Since the Governor questioned the impropriety in these appointments he has become persona non grata to the party commissars as well as the SFI leaders. On Monday night when the SFI activists waved black flags at the governor and attacked his official car when he was on his way to the airport, a visibly shocked Arif Mohammed Khan got down from his car and rebuked the student leaders that they were acting as goondas.By Tuesday morning the young CPI-M ministers in the State accused the Governor of acting as the hatchet man of the RSS. Interestingly, this charge has been made by a minister who has been charged with cases of sexual assault on women. Another minister asked why the Governor got down from the car when the SFI workers were staging a protest against him. Interestingly, the SFI, once known for its commitment and dedication to the causes of the CPI-M has become a butt of jokes for the kind of demands being made to the university authorities. The recently concluded students’ election to the universities in the State saw the young CPI-M activists demanding that the staff councils (a body of faculty members in colleges) should have adequate representation for students and that university examinations to be held only in the afternoon as students wake up late. The next set of demands would feature that the vice-chancellors and faculty members should be appointed only with their concurrence! Gone are the days when vice-chancellors and faculty members were appointed based on their teaching skills and ability to elevate the quality of students to new heights. The director of public education said in a closed-door meeting recently that marks are being showered on students who could not even write their own names without errors. Politics has claimed the quality of Kerala’s higher education as the PhD thesis submitted by research scholars is not worth the papers in which they are written. Saraswathi, the goddess of education, could be heard weeping in universities and educational institutions. Sarva Kala Sala (Malayalam for University) has degenerated into Sarva Kalla Sala (shops of deception and claptrap).

(The writer is a special correspondent with the Pioneer, views are personal)