West Bengal Governor’s letter to V-Cs sparks row

A fresh controversy has erupted over West Bengal Governor C.V. Ananda Bose asking Vice-Chancellors (V-Cs) of all State-run universities to submit weekly reports to Raj Bhavan.

A fresh controversy has erupted over West Bengal Governor C.V. Ananda Bose asking Vice-Chancellors (V-Cs) of all State-run universities to submit weekly reports to Raj Bhavan.

The development did not go well with the State government and on Friday Education Minister Bratya Basu questioned the legal validity of the Governor’s letter.

“I have told the department’s Principal Secretary to take legal opinion on the matter,” Mr. Basu said. The Minister added that the State government was completely kept in dark over the development and he learnt about the letter from the V-Cs.

Along with seeking weekly reports, the Governor has informed V-Cs that any issue that has financial implications needs approval from Raj Bhavan. Mr. Basu urged the Governor to withdraw the letter while commenting that the government’s relationship with Raj Bhawan “was one of cooperation rather than competition”.

While the Governor is Chancellor of all State universities, the new development is reminiscent of the conflict between Governor Bose’s predecessor Jagdeep Dhankhar and the Trinamool Congress government. The government had passed several legislations replacing the Governor with Chief Minister as Chancellor of all State universities. These legislations, however, did not get Raj Bhavan’s assent.

On an earlier occasion, Mr. Bose had extended cooperation to West Bengal government and come to the rescue of the Higher Education Department when he accepted resignation of several V-Cs and reappointed them. The V-Cs’ appointment however became ineffective after the intervention of the Calcutta High Court and Supreme Court.

The Minister also targeted the Governor over recent statements in which he had called for peace after violence during Ram Navami procession. The Governor visited violence-affected Rishra on April 4 and on Thursday was on the streets of Kolkata taking stock of the law-and-order situation in the State and interacting with locals.