CHENNAI: Following criticism that ‘non-Tamil’ M K Surappa was appointed as Vice-Chancellor of Anna University (AU), Governor Banwarilal Purohit on Saturday said politics should be kept out and unnecessary mud-slinging avoided. The Governor, who is also the university Chancellor, on Thursday appointed Surappa as the V-C for a three-year term. Surappa was the founding director of Indian Institute of Technology-Ropar, where he held his post between 2009 and 2015. A Kannadiga, he will hold a post for the first time in Tamil Nadu. Senior leaders of several opposition parties, including DMK, MDMK, PMK, CPI, CPM, SDPI and Makkal Neethi Maiam of actor Kamal Haasan, lashed out at the Governor, condemning his decision to choose an “outsider” for the post, instead of choosing a candidate of Tamil origin.
The Governor clarified that a fair and rigorous selection process was applied. “The selection was purely based on the needs of Anna University to have at its helm of affairs a Vice-Chancellor, who understands the requirements of technical education in Tamil Nadu,” Purohit said. Claiming that the process was done in accordance with statutes, he requested that “politics be kept out and unnecessary mud-slinging avoided.”
The Governor had been notified about the V-C post vacancy in six universities after he assumed office. Surappa was the fifth appointment in the list, with the only exception being Tamil Nadu Physical Education and Sports University, for which the name of the government nominee to be included as a member of the search committee has allegedly not been submitted by the Youth Welfare and Sports Development Department.
An advertisement inviting applications for the post of V-C was approved by the search committee and issued in the newspapers and posted in the university website along with relevant sections of the University Act, Rules and Regulations and eligibility conditions. “The committee, after a careful study of the applications, shortlisted nine candidates for interaction,” the statement said. “It then prepared a panel of three candidates and submitted it to the Chancellor,” the statement said.The search committee comprising V S Sirpurkar, the Chancellor nominee, N Sundara Devan, the Government nominee, and R Gnanamoorthy, who is the nominee of the university syndicate in IIT-Madras, was constituted in November 2017.