Tension between Rajasthan Governor, university VC had been building up since last year

Letters exchanged between Raj Bhawan and the office of the Vice Chancellor of the Haridev Joshi University of Journalism and Mass Communication (HJU), a government university in Jaipur, show that the tension between the two sides has been building up since at least March last year, The Indian Express has found out.

In his letters, Om Thanvi, whose tenure of three years as vice-chancellor ended Monday, has expressed concerns over the orders of the Governor, including his decision to call off the BoM and advisory committee meetings which he called “arbitrary”. Thanvi also said that he hopes future vice-chancellors of the university won’t be “harassed based on the whims of MLAs”.

On February 21 this year, Thanvi wrote to the Governor, saying no provision in the Act under which the university was set up authorises the Governor, who is the Chancellor, “to issue orders without consultation with the Government and hearing the University’s point of view. Thus, it is really unpleasant and disheartening that orders on your directions are being issued by the Secretary to Governor to the University without following the set best practices of consultation and hearing but just taking the words of BJP MLAs as granted facts and figures”.

Thanvi’s letter was in reply to a letter from the Governor’s office on February 18, in which Raj Bhawan cited a circular by the state’s Higher Education Department to say that meetings in universities should not be held when the Assembly session is underway since the BoM has some MLAs as members.

The Board of Management meeting was scheduled for February 21 and the advisory committee meeting for February 25.

The order, signed by the Principal Secretary to Governor, had also cited a letter of opposition by BJP MLA Dharmnarayan Joshi, who had demanded that no policy decisions should be taken in the meetings as only a few weeks were left in the V-C’s tenure.

In his response, Thanvi said he felt “hurt” by the Governor’s letter. “I have reasons to believe that some officer at Raj Bhawan has misled the Hon’ble Chancellor and did not put the fact and provisions of the Act before the Chancellor, which resulted in issuance of the above mentioned letter which is more damaging the reputation of the University and also my personal reputation with no fault or judicial basis,” he said.

In another instance, in a letter written by the Secretary of the Governor on March 30, 2021, Thanvi was asked to give a detailed clarification about his “tweets and political statements”.

The letter was sent to the vice-chancellor on the basis of a letter written by Lokesh Sharma, who in a letter to the Governor, had said that Thanvi should be removed since he makes political statements which amount to violation of “decorum in his constitutional post”. Sharma cited Thanvi’s statements and tweets on former deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee as grounds for his letter.

Lokesh Sharma works in the office of Congress leader Suresh Mishra. When contacted, Mishra said he has nothing to do with the letter sent by Sharma to the Governor.

Thanvi replied to Raj Bhawan on April 6, 2021, saying the university staff and the vice-chancellor are not government employees and HJU is an autonomous body, not a department of the Rajasthan government. He added that the vice-chancellor and university staff have the right to take part in discussions on political issues and voice their opinion.

“As a citizen, expression is my constitutional right and as a head of a journalism and mass communication institution also, it is my fundamental duty to teach about expression and to advocate it. It is the duty of a university associated with expression and communication to teach and give the message of independent expression so that a sense of humanitarian concern and courage is developed among students,” Thanvi said in the letter.

First established during the previous tenure of Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot in 2013, HJU was shut down by the Vasundhara Raje-led BJP government and merged with Rajasthan University. The Congress, then in the Opposition, had accused the Raje government of political vendetta. After coming to power in 2019, CM Gehlot re-established the university.

“I wish that in future, persons occupying the Chair of Vice-Chancellor are not harassed based on the whims of MLAs,” wrote Thanvi in his February 21 letter to the Governor.

When contacted, Subir Kumar, principal secretary to Rajasthan Governor Kalraj Mishra declined to comment on the issue.

After Thanvi’s tenure as VC ended, Governor Mishra on Monday issued an order, giving additional charge of HJU’s vice-chancellorship to Dr Dev Swaroop, vice-chancellor of Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar Law University in Jaipur.