KOLKATA: West Bengal assembly recently passed a bill that recommends appointing the education minister as the ‘visitor’ of all the private universities in the Bengal state by replacing the governor, even after strong opposition by BJP legislators. The BJP MLAs walked out of the assembly protesting against it, the West Bengal Private University Laws Bill 2022 was passed by a voice vote.
The judgment came after a day when the Bengal University Laws Bill 2022, which states to make the chief minister the chancellor of all state-run universities by replacing the governor. On Tuesday, the bill was passed in the assembly that recommends making the state’s education minister Bartya Basu a ‘visitor’ of 11 private universities instead of governor Jagdeep Dhankar.
“There are so many private universities across the country. None of those has the governor as the Visitor. As per recommendations of the Punchhi Commission, it has been clearly stated that to be able to discharge the constitutional obligations fairly and impartially, the governor should not be burdened with positions and powers, which are not envisaged under the Constitution,” Basu said. The education by referring to the state government’s interference said “the charges are baseless”, “The governor, who is the present chancellor, has violated rules and protocols on various occasions. The claim that he is an apolitical person is not right. He is very active politically,” the minister said.
The politics of the BJP propagates chaos and hate, these people are doing nothing but trying to ruin the image of our beloved state. Just for their awarded political concern, they avoided and sacrificed the interest of the people of Bengal, he said. Meanwhile, BJP MLA Ambika Roy said, ‘passing the bills is nothing but the politicisation of the state’s education.
“These developments are alarming and indicate rule of the ruler and not of law. Such a scenario cannot be countenanced,” the governor had said. The clash over the administration of state universities is the latest between Didi’s government and Dhankar, they have been in a province conflict with the dispensation after assuming office in 2019 over so many problems. The report says that, in December last year, the chancellors and vice-chancellors of private universities did not attend a meeting that was called by Dhankar even after rescheduling it.
