Government-Governor War Of Words Continue
Chezhian said that the Union BJP Government was giving trouble to the States run by opposition parties and listed some of his complaints against Ravi.
Chennai: Perturbed by Vice Chancellors of Government universities not attending the two-conference that he had called for at the Ooty Raj Bhavan from Friday, Governor R N Ravi accused Chief Minister M K Stalin of using the police to stop them while State Minister for Higher Education Kovi Chezhian categorically denied the charge.
Employing threat in politics was part of the BJP’s DNA while fighting from the State’s right was part of the DMK’s DNA, Chezhian said in a statement, replying to the Governor’s allegation of police knocking at the hotel rooms of the vice-chancellors in Ooty and even taking one of them to the police station on the day of the conference.
Ravi said the mid-night knocks at the hotel rooms were reminiscent of the Emergency days, adding that the police were dispatched when the telephonic threats of the Minister for Higher Education did not work. The police threatened the vice-chancellors with ‘dire consequences to their life’ and that they would not be allowed to return home if they attended the conference, Ravi said.
Chezhian wondered why the vice-chancellors who had attended the earlier conferences organised by Ravi did not turn up this time and said that he convened the conference with a view to wrestling with the State government after the Supreme Court ordered the sanctioning of Bills withheld by him for long and also stipulated a time limit for clearing Bills passed by the Assembly.
When the vice chancellors had boycotted the conference, which was convened in violation of the law, probably due to the Supreme Court verdict, how could the State government be held responsible for it, the Minister asked, making it clear that the Constitution did not mention anywhere that the Governor should be the chancellor of State universities.
If the Governor went against the law, how could be expect the vice chancellors, too, to go against the law, Chezian asked and said that the State government would face anything on the basis of law, be it the raids by ED, CBI, I-T and NIA, as it did with the Bills withheld by Ravi.
Since the Supreme Court verdict had become a talk of the nation, Ravi had invited Vice President Jagdeep Jhankar to be with him in his bid to spite the State by calling for the conference, he said.
The Governor, however, asked: ‘Don’t VCs have academic freedom to attend an academic conference within the state? Or is CM Stalin afraid of the consequences of rise in standards of state universities which largely caters to Dalit and poor students and any quality improvement will make them aspirational and inspirational that could be a threat to his political future?’
Referring to the alleged ‘gross abuse of Police’, he asked if Tamil Nadu was a police state.
Chezhian said that the Union BJP Government was giving trouble to the States run by opposition parties and listed some of his complaints against Ravi.
