NILGIRIS/CHENNAI: Governor R N Ravi on Friday alleged that Chief Minister M K Stalin used police to deter Vice-Chancellors of state universities from participating in the pre-scheduled conference convened by him at the Ooty Raj Bhavan and claimed that the action was reminiscent of the Emergency days. When telephonic threats from Higher Education Minister (Govi Chezhiaan) to the V-Cs not to take part in the conference did not work, the CM used police, Ravi alleged, evoking a sharp rebuke from Chezhiaan.
The minister said the governor intentionally “played politics” despite the Supreme Court ruling in favour of the state government on the 10 bills re-adopted by the Tamil Nadu Assembly. “Aware of the Supreme Court verdict, the V-Cs boycotted the conference. How is the state government responsible for this,” asked Chezhiaan.
Speaking at the conference, Ravi said, “Unfortunately, state universities are not participating in this conference. Because they have informed me, even in writing, that they have been warned by the state government not to participate. As of now, one of our V-Cs is in a police station. Others who reached Udhagamandalam received midnight knocks on their hotel rooms by the secret police’s special branch.”
‘Gross abuse of cops, is TN a police state?’
“They were threatened by the police with dire consequences to their life and that they would not be allowed to go home if they attended the conference. I advised them to take care of their families, and not to jeopardise their interests. I wish good sense prevails, because, essentially, this conference is meant to improve the quality (of education). There is no politics involved. It has been showing results,” Ravi said. Incidentally, the Salem city police held an inquiry with Periyar University Vice-Chancellor R Jagannathan on Friday regarding the cases registered against him.
Later in the day, in a post on his social media handle ‘X’, Ravi said, “Such a gross abuse of Police! Is it a police state? Don’t V-Cs have academic freedom to attend an academic conference within the state? Or is CM Stalin afraid of consequences of rise in standards of state universities which largely cater to Dalit and poor students, and any quality improvement will make them aspirational and inspirational that could be a threat to his political future?”
Speaking at the conference, Ravi alleged that state universities were not even communicating with each other and were all working in silos run by the secretariat. “Deemed universities and autonomous institutions are excellent and get top 10 ranks in the NIRF ranking, but not a single state university had achieved a top ranking in NIRF. Our Madras University, which was once as a premier university in the country and ranked among top five, is nowhere in the reckoning today.”
Ravi also said, “Students from poor and marginalised communities often cannot afford private institutions and join government institutions, which, unfortunately, suffer from lack of quality education.”
More than 34 V-Cs, registrars, deans, and officials from various public and private universities took part in the conference inaugurated by Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankhar. Among the state universities, two directors of Salem Periyar University and a dean from Alagappa University took part.
304 protesters held
Police arrested 304 individuals from various movements for holding protests in various places to condemn the Tamil Nadu governor for holding the conference.
