Governor called the Chief Minister for consensus, CPM backs Pinarayi in Vice Chancellor appointment

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: CPM offers support to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan in the appointments of Vice Chancellors of Digital and Technological Universities. The party clarified that there was no difference of opinion in the state secretariat regarding the appointment of VCs. The secretariat clarified that it was the Governor who took the initiative for consensus. The party clarified its stand by rejecting the allegations that there was criticism in the CPM regarding the appointment of VCs. The CPM said in a statement that the state secretariat accepted the stand taken by the Chief Minister, but the media is trying to spread that there was a difference of opinion.

CPM's Facebook post

The propaganda being done by some media outlets regarding the appointment of Vice Chancellors is baseless. The acts of Kerala Digital University and Kerala Technological University make it clear that the Governor, who is the Chancellor, should seek the opinion of the government to appoint a temporary Vice Chancellor in these universities. Without considering this, the Governor, who is the Chancellor, unilaterally appointed temporary Vice Chancellors. The state government approached the High Court against this illegal action. The High Court Single Bench and Division Bench accepted the government's stand. The Governor, who is the Chancellor, approached the Supreme Court against this. The Supreme Court directed the appointment of permanent Vice Chancellors in this case.

According to the existing law, the Chancellor has the full power to appoint a permanent VC. However, the Supreme Court directed the Governor and the government to reach a consensus. The Supreme Court appointed a search committee headed by a retired Supreme Court justice to prepare a panel to decide on the Vice Chancellors. This committee submitted three lists to the Chief Minister. In this, the Chief Minister determined the order of priority as per the court's instructions and submitted them to the Governor, who is the Chancellor. However, the Governor did not accept this and expressed disagreement and submitted two other names before the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court again asked the Governor and the Chief Minister to reach a consensus in this regard. The Governor, who was not ready for a consensus at first, called the Chief Minister and reached a consensus after the court toughened its position. This is what the Supreme Court has now accepted.

The party state secretariat unanimously accepted the stand taken by the Chief Minister regarding the appointment of the Vice Chancellor. Yet the media tried to spread the idea that there was a difference of opinion in the CPI(M) state secretariat. Such false propaganda should be rejected.