More than a week after President Ram Nath Kovind paid an official visit to Thiruvananthapuram, a controversy has broken out in the State that the First Citizen of the Nation was humiliated by the CPI(M)-led Kerala Government.
The President unveiled a statue of G N Panikkar, the father figure of Kerala’s Library Movement on December 24,2021. Though he had no official functions to attend to after this event, he had to stay in the Raj Bhavan for a day as the Kerala Government developed cold feet in the eleventh hour to award the First Citizen with a DLitt degree.
There were two more incidents allegedly because of official apathy that cast shadows over the Preident’s State visit. The car of Arya Rajendran, Mayor of Thiruvananthapuram Corporation, created a stir as she drove into the cavalcade of the President in her bid to be part of the entourage. Similarly, no water was provided in the rest room earmarked for the President at the venue where he unveiled the statue of Panikkar.
The Pioneer was told by sources in General Administration Department of the State that Governor Arif Mohammed Khan in his capacity as Chancellor of the Kerala University had told Vice Chancellor V P Mahadevan Pillai that the President should be awarded an honorary DLitt degree. The Vice Chancellor reportedly agreed it on the spot but Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and his cabinet colleagues shot down the plan in the eleventh hour because of the President’s past link with the RSS. The CPI(M) had declared on each and every occasion that it can never compromise on its declared enmity towards the RSS.
The mix-up in connection with the DLitt is being used by the BJP to put the CPI(M) government in a spot. Minister of State for external affairs V Muraleedharan charged on Sunday that the CPI(M) humiliated the First Citizen who is also the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces because of his Harijan origin.
But Leader of the Opposition V D Satheeshan is on record blaming the Governor for the faux pas. “The Governor has no right to summon the Vice Chancellor and order him to honour anybody with honorary degrees like DLitt. I am in the same page with the CPI(M) over this issue,” said the Leader of the Opposition.
But by Sunday, more beans seem to have spilled out of the cupboards of the State’s higher educational institutions when it was revealed by at least ten students pursuing post graduation in Kannur University has not passed their graduate examinations. The new charge comes at a time when Kerala and Calicut Universities are faced with charges of awarding PhD degrees to students who plagiarized research papers of scholars from other universities.