THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: As the tussle between the governor and the LDF government intensifies, BJP-RSS has emerged as the main player in the Opposition, leaving Congress in a spectator’s role.
The issues that began after the appointment of Arif Mohammed Khan as governor in 2019 continue even after Rajendra Arlekar took charge at Raj Bhavan. The simmering issues have taken a toll on higher education sector.
Though members of ABVP had been elected to university senates before, this is the first time academicians close to Sangh Parivar are getting visibility and say in the higher education sector. Now, barring KUFOS, Malayalam University and MG University, 10 universities have no permanent VCs. In KUHS, a former VC has been reappointed. Incidentally, the Calicut university VC in-charge Dr P Raveendran was a pro-Congress academician. However, after his appointment by the former governor, he became close to the Raj Bhavan, Congress sources said.
Cusat VC in-charge Dr M Junaid Bushir, also a pro-Congress academician, was appointed by Khan. He is also reportedly close to Raj Bhavan now, than the Congress party. The big booster came in when Arif Khan nominated 17 candidates to the Kerala University senate. Most of them belong to BJP-ABVP. Though two ABVP nominees lost out in the ensuing legal battle, the other two BJP nominees got elected to KU Syndicate, while the Congress had to be satisfied with one. In Calicut University also, leaders belonging to BJP-RSS were nominated to the senate.
The Sangh Parivar got an advantage after the legal tussle over the appointment of VCs reached the Supreme Court, and the governor was allowed to make temporary appointments in universities.
“Now, many of the VCs in-charge work in tandem with the Raj Bhavan,” KAU Syndicate member Shiju Khan told TNIE. “RSS is concentrating on Kerala University because it is a symbol of the state’s achievements in higher education. BJP-RSS members were never elected to the syndicate before. However, they achieved it with the help of Raj Bhavan. This is how they intrude into spaces that were once out of reach to them,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Save University Campaign Committee led by Congressman R S Sasi Kumar against the CPM’s alleged misrule in varsities, also helped Raj Bhavan tighten its grip on universities. It was the allegations raised by the campaign committee leaders Sasi Kumar and Shajar Khan which prompted the then governor to interfere in matters concerning universities. However, Shajar Khan, who is also a leader of SUCI, has distanced himself from the Save University Campaign Committee.
“Now, officially I am not associating with the committee as I have realised that it was the BJP which is reaping the benefits of the issues that we raised politically,” Shajar Khan told TNIE. “This does not mean that the allegations were baseless. The latest controversy involving the programme on Kerala University campus which led to the suspension of the registrar shows RSS’ real intention,” he added.
In Congress, there is criticism about the way the party and its student organisation KSU are handling the issue by merely issuing statements and conducting nominal protests. “What we lack is ideological clarity,” a KPCC leader told TNIE. “We were carried away by Sangh Parivar tactics. On many occasions, we turned to the then governor as a saviour. But, the public saw him as a crusader and we lost out,” he said.