Congress on Wednesday criticized Pinarayi Vijayan’s government in Kerala for turning universities in the state into “party offices”.
Opposition leader VD Satheesan, who raised the issue in the Assembly, said that while universities should be centers of excellence, they have now unfortunately become a haven for backdoor appointments of the family and relatives of (left-wing) “party leaders”.
“The scene is that every day we hear about backdoor appointments from family and relatives of party leaders, whereby merit gets nothing at all. The stage is such that today only those close to the party get a job and universities here turn into party offices. Besides, the vice-chancellors are just puppets,” he said.
The House also saw furious exchanges between the Treasury and opposition benches when congressional lawmaker Roji M. John threatened to reveal the names of the wives of Treasury lawmakers, who have backdoor appointments.
The appointment order that Kannur University has given to Priya Varghese, wife of the Secretary of the Chief Minister KK Ragesh, allegedly bypassing merit and qualifications has been discussed on various platforms for some time now.
When this became news, Governor Arif Mohammed Khan at first withheld the appointment and the Kerala Supreme Court soon followed suit. But in the Assembly, State Minister of Higher Education R. Bindhu said all mandatory rules and regulations of the UGC have been followed and the appointment is in order.
Now all eyes are on Khan, who returns to his official residence here later in the day after a short stop in Delhi. Khan has “declared war” on Kannur University Vice Chancellor Gopinath Ravindran, calling him a political worker of the CPI-M.
Read all Latest education news and Important news here