TN governor R N Ravi alleges state government intimidated university vice chancellors against attending VCs' conference

UDHAGAMANDALAM: The governor-govt face-off took yet another unpleasant turn with Tamil Nadu governor R N Ravi alleging that vice-chancellors of state universities were ‘warned’ by the state govt not to participate in the Vice-Chancellors’ conference convened by the Raj Bhavan in Ooty on Friday.“Unfortunately, none of the vice-chancellors of state universities are participating (in the conference). They have informed me that they were warned by the state govt,” the Governor said in his speech at the inaugural ceremony of the conference. The two-day conference was inaugurated by Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar. While the VCs of state-run universities were absent, VCs from central universities and deemed-to-be universities participated.The Governor said one of the VCs who reached Ooty to participate in the conference was threatened by state police to drop his plan. “A VC reached Ooty and something unprecedented happened. There was a midnight knock and a special branch police was there and he told him that if he participated in the conference, he would not be able to go home and meet his family,” Ravi said.“I advised them to take care of their family,” Ravi said. He mentioned another VC was at the police station at the moment, referring to Salem Periyar University Vice-Chancellor R Jagannathan, who was summoned by Suramangalam police for an inquiry pertaining to complaints that he floated a private firm and used university premises to run it.“I wish good sense prevails as this conference is meant to improve quality. There is no politics involved, and it has been showing results. But perhaps for people in the govt, it is not a comfortable situation,” Ravi said.Soon after his speech, DMK hit back, saying the conference was illegal. “I condemn these false and irresponsible statements made by Thiru R N Ravi, Governor of Tamil Nadu, who is proving to be incorrigible. How can a Governor make such baseless allegations against his own govt?” asked DMK MP P Wilson in a tweet.“The vice-chancellors have not attended this illegal conference called by you because they understand that your intention is to poison our universities with a particular ideology and politicise them,” Wilson said.He stated that such false statements that tend to excite subversive activities against the govt were a serious crime. “The Governor should not abuse his immunity under Art 361(2),” he said.“We wish to maintain our universities as centres of academic excellence, imparting scientific education and will not allow anybody to politicise education or peddle pseudoscience and irrational ideologies,” he said.The escalation of the tussle between the govt and the Governor comes against the backdrop of the Supreme Court judgement granting assent to the Act empowering the state govt to appoint vice-chancellors. Soon after the SC judgement, chief minister M K Stalin chaired a meeting of VCs and registrars of state universities.