PAU V-C appointment: Punjab CM Mann asks governor not to engage in ‘proxy war’ with state govt

He added that PAU’s board of management was responsible for appointing VCs for the university. Neither the CM nor the Governor were the appointing authorities, he clarified. He said previous Vice Chancellors of the state, including Dr B S Dhillon and Dr M S Kang, were also appointed by the PAU’s board. “The appointment of Dr Gosal was also done following the rules,” Mann wrote in the letter.

“Dr Gosal is a scientist of repute. He is a respected Sikh. Your order of his removal has left the Punjabis across the world very upset,” Mann said in the letter, which he later tweeted.

The letter further mentioned, “For the last few months, you have been interfering in the functioning of the government, which has been elected by the people of the state with a massive mandate. People of Punjab are sick of this. First, you did not allow convening of the Vidhan Sabha session. Later, you scrapped the appointment of Dr G S Wander as VC of Baba Farid University of Health Science (BFUHS). Now you have ordered the removal of Dr Gosal as the PAU VC.”

Mann added, “People of Punjab have given a huge mandate to the Aam Aadmi Party and have high hopes. I am trying to come true to their expectations. I am working day and night. In such a scenario if someone tries to prevent the government from functioning, the people (of Punjab) will not tolerate this.”

“I have met you several times. You are a kind hearted human being. You cannot do this. Who is asking you to do these unconstitutional acts? Why do you comply with them? They remain in the background and you get a bad name. I request with folded hands not to pay heed to such people. Those who are getting this done are not well-wishers of Punjab. I request you to let the elected government perform its duties,” Mann said.

Talking to the media during an informal interaction, Mann said, “I have written a letter to the Governor. I know he is not doing all this on his own. But he has people in the background to do all this.”

He added that the Governor’s striking down of the recent appointments is taking away experts of repute from Punjab. “Dr Gosal is an expert of repute. Foreign universities want him. We want him here for our universities. This is not the way to treat them (experts) just for politics,” Mann said.