Cleaning Up What's 'Left': Arif Mohammad Khan Must Get Rid Of SFI Dominance In Kerala Universities

The Supreme Court recently struck down the reappointment of Gopinath Ravindran as Vice Chancellor (VC) of Kannur University in Kerala.

The apex court ruled that the reappointment was unwarranted interference by the state government and said that the Chancellor (Governor) is not merely a rubber stamp in university matters.

This ruling comes at a time when Governor Arif Mohammad Khan has been appointing a number of people not affiliated to the Left, including those considered closer to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), to university senates, thus loosening the Left’s tight grip over university administration.

Senates generally comprise faculty, administrative officials, and even students as its members.

Unhappy with the unfavourable appointments, the ruling Communist Party of India (Marxist) or CPI(M) is said to be training its guns against the Governor by firing shots off the shoulders of its student wing, the Students Federation of India (SFI).

It is no wonder that the SFI members recently gheraoed Governor Khan’s car when he was on the way to the Thiruvananthapuram airport.

Later, they even put up black banners that read "Sanghi Governor, Go Back" outside the guest house of the Calicut University where he was temporarily residing.

Left’s Tactics

The appointment of a VC requires a search committee comprising the nominees of the Governor (Chancellor), University Grants Commission (UGC), and the senate or syndicate of the university.

While the Governor and the UGC were going by the book on the nomination process, the university senates — thought to be dominated by the Left — were reportedly failing to nominate candidates in order to stall the process.

The pro-Left Democratic Front (LDF) university bodies had not been sending their representatives to the search committee for VC candidates.

This ability of the Left-dominated senates to stall the process is threatened by the Governor's appointment of non-Left nominees. The university bodies can no longer hinder the process, for instance, by citing a lack of quorum.

This change has been spurred by the appointment of people affiliated to the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF), the BJP, and various church organisations, as in the case of Calicut University.

So decisive is the change that the BJP is reportedly set to get its first syndicate member in Calicut University and two more in Kerala University.

Merit Over Party

Playing down the allegations of Governor Khan favouring RSS-BJP candidates, Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) state secretary N C T Sreehari said that Khan was appointing meritorious people to the senate instead of nominees from the AKG Centre (CPI-M party headquarters), which favours SFI leaders.

P K Krishnadas, a member of the BJP National Executive Committee, said the protesting SFI must realise that all nominees cannot come only from their organisation.

The Left has been dominating universities in Kerala for decades. They have now been fuming at Governor Khan's decision to nominate people from a variety of backgrounds.

The Left would be better off trying to fix the state’s economy, which is neck deep in trouble, rather than seeking to establish control over universities.

They are anyway less likely to succeed in their attempts now that the Governor’s intervention is restoring the balance.