Thiruvananthapuram: On the eve of his retirement, Kerala University vice-chancellor P. K. Radhakrishnan lambasted the syndicate and student leaders for sabotaging its functioning. His 16-page report covers various aspects and makes suggestions for the future and says he stood for the well being of the stakeholders. The false allegations and personal attacks were from politicians and student leaders due to his firm stand on issues, says the VC's note, Looking Back at May Years at the University of Kerala. There is no general agreement among members of the Syndicate in particular and other statutory bodies of the University. Unless such a consensus evolved, the University would remain a mere shell without a solid core.
As per the provision of UGC Regulations 2010, the pro-vice-chancellor is to be appointed by the Syndicate based on the recommendations of the VC. "I exercised my prerogative without heeding any external influences by recommending a name that I could justify before the academic community and the general public. The syndicate rejected my recommendation and wanted me to recommend the name of their choice. I rejected their suggestion. My conscience is very clear, and I did the right thing," he says. "Many programmes that would have benefited the students, in general, are unsuccessful, as they are exploited by the student leaders as a platform to create annoyance and establish their importance. The performance analysis of both three-tier induction programme and Multi-Disciplinary Annual Research Conference (MARC) has explicitly revealed this fact."
"I had a clear understanding of the breakdown of administration in the hostels with a small team pretending themselves as student leaders and making innocent inmates hostile towards the authorities to use them for their selfish motives," he adds. "Those students practically decided the admissions to the hostels. By making admissions online this has been controlled to a large extent."
He also criticised the media for adopting a hostile attitude towards the University authorities by publishing false and misleading news items.
