THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A group of 17 intellectuals, including senior academics K N Panikkar, Irfan Habib and Romila Thapar, have issued a joint statement condemning Governor Arif Mohammed Khan’s action of ousting vice-chancellors as part of ‘political vengeance’.
“With the dismissal of the vice-chancellors of the University of Calicut and the Sree Sankaracharya University of Sanskrit by the Governor of Kerala in his capacity as Chancellor, all leading universities in Kerala are deprived of vice-chancellors,” the joint statement said.
They pointed out that all vice-chancellors were appointed by Khan.
However, they were dismissed by invoking a Supreme Court verdict that invalidated the selection of a vice-chancellor due to an error in the composition of the selection committee.
“The action of the Chancellor, the legal validity of which is yet to be settled by the court, is apparently political vendetta against the state government,” the statement said.
