In a new twist to the perennial run-ins between the Raj Bhavan and Nabanna (State secretariat) the Bengal Government on Thursday decided to replace Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee as the chancellor of the State-run universities.
The decision was taken in a hurriedly called Cabinet meeting on Thursday noon, sources said adding after the Cabinet decision the Government will now amend the existing law and get the Bill passed in the State Assembly.
State Education Minister Bratya Basu said that the “Cabinet has unanimously passed a resolution to replace the Governor with the Chief Minister as the chancellor of all the state-run universities … now a Bill to this effect will be place in the Assembly and the law will be amended.”
Though the Minister would not dwell on any possible alternative measure should the Governor refuse to sign the Bill, another senior minister said “the Government has the option of sending it for the presidential assent or pass an ordinance to that effect.” The second option was more likely he hinted.
Basu had in an earlier statement said that “if the Governor continues not to cooperate with the Government … by sitting on the files the Government will have no option but to replace him with the Chief Minister so that academic process does not get hampered due to political reasons.”
The ruling Trinamool Congress has often attacked the Raj Bhavan calling it a BJP office and the Governor an “agent of the BJP.” The Governor on the other hand had alleged that the State had appointed about 25 Vice Chancellors illegally without taking the consent of the Raj Bhavan and that at the instance of the State Government the V-Cs do not come to attend the meetings called by him.
There was uproar both in the civil and political society soon after the Cabinet decision with opposition BJP calling the decision an attempt to usurp even the academia. “After having extend its sway in all the departments … after having devoured everything the Government now wants to usurp higher education,” said BJP leader Samik
Bhattacharya.
Another BJP leader and former MP Anupam Hazra said that “the way the Chief Minister is taking her decisions would have made even Muhammad bin Tughlaq feel threatened too … today she telling that she is the Chancellor … tomorrow she will say that she is the Prime Minister of Bengal.”