Governor Bose, Mamata standoff over interim V-Cs row boils over as Abhishek ups the ante

The development came even as the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC)’s national general secretary and Mamata’s nephew Abhishek Banerjee along with party activists has continued to hold their indefinite sit-in demonstration outside the Raj Bhavan in Kolkata, demanding the release of Bengal’s MGNREGA fund “dues” by the Centre and an audience with Bose.

Although Bose, who is currently touring north Bengal, has agreed to meet a TMC delegation at his gubernatorial mansion in Darjeeling on Saturday evening, the party has not called off its protest so far.

Genesis of face-off

The continuing standoff between the Raj Bhavan and the Mamata-led TMC government might be traced to the tenure of former Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar, who is currently the Vice-President of India. During his three-year stint in the Bengal Raj Bhavan, Dhankhar had remained engaged in a war of words with the Mamata dispensation on various matters, especially those related to the education department.

After Bose, a former bureaucrat, was named the Governor in November 2022, state education minister Bratya Basu appeared to mend fences with the Raj Bhavan. In January this year, Basu held a series of meetings with Bose. He even declared that the Governor will remain the Chancellor despite the state government having already passed a Bill in the Assembly to nominate the CM as the ex-officio Chancellor.

Mamata had then called the Governor a “perfect gentleman” after meeting him at the Raj Bhavan. Bose had even drawn flak from the principal Opposition BJP following an event at the Raj Bhavan attended by the CM on January 26. The Governor, in an attempt to start learning Bengali, organised a “Haathe Khori (initiation with a chalk)” ceremony at the Raj Bhavan. In Bengali families, the ritual is organised to mark the formal beginning of a child’s education. While Mamata attended the event, Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari boycotted it and charged that it was part of the state government’s attempt to “wash off the stain” of the alleged teacher recruitment scam.

In February, Bose’s decision to relieve his principal secretary Nandini Chakravorty of her duties did not go down well with the TMC government, which set the stage for the first major confrontation between them.

Till then, they enjoyed cordial relations, which was in stark contrast with the strained ties between the two sides witnessed during Dhankar’s gubernatorial tenure.

However, the relations between Bose and the Mamata government started souring after the former asked those V-Cs to resign whose tenures had ended. At first, Bose extended the tenures of some interim V-Cs to buy time for the formation of the search committees to select full-term V-Cs.

In May, the state government promulgated The West Bengal University Laws (Amendment) Ordinance 2023, which made changes to how these search committees could be formed. Changing the provision of the earlier three-member panel comprising one representative each nominated by the state education department, the varsity concerned and the Governor, the Ordinance stipulated setting up of new five-member search committees with one member each to be nominated by the CM, education department, state Higher Education Council, University Grants Commission (UGC) and the Governor.

However, a PIL was filed in the Calcutta High Court, challenging the Ordinance, following which the court sought a report from the state government. With the matter pending in the court, the Governor took the matter in his hands, appointing interim V-Cs for 11 of the 17 state universities in June.

Then, in July, in an unprecedented move, Bose appointed former Karnataka High Court chief justice Subhro Kamal Mukherjee as the interim V-C of the Rabindra Bharati University. It was the first of several interim V-Cs picked by the Raj Bhavan, who came from a non-academic background. Mukherjee, who had retired in 2017, was later given the additional charge of the Presidency University as the officiating V-C.

Last straw

On September 3, Bose made fresh appointments of interim V-Cs in seven more universities and initiated a similar process for nine other varsities. This led to a sharp deterioration in the already-strained ties between the Governor and the Mamata government, and a bitter spat began. Basu alleged that Bose was taking decisions without consulting the state education department, which he charged was “illegal”.

After the education minister accused the Governor of denigrating the V-C’s office by calling them “corrupt and immoral”, Bose said he would be glad for taking action against Basu at “the stroke of midnight”, which drew the “vampire” quip from the minister.

On October 1, the Governor named six ad hoc V-Cs, which came despite the state government moving the Supreme Court to challenge his earlier appointments.

The latest showdown again triggered a war of words between the TMC and the BJP. “The TMC government did not follow UGC guidelines and violated norms in appointment of vice-chancellors without taking consideration of the opinion of the Governor, who happens to the the Chancellor. A state of anarchy was prevalent in such universities. Therefore, the Governor took steps to ensure normalcy in such institutes of higher education. But instead of lauding the Governor’s move, the TMC has targeted him. This is not only unfortunate but uncalled for,” said BJP spokesperson Samik Bhattacharya.

The TMC hit back by saying that “the Governor should have followed rules”. “We want Raj Bhavan to act in consultation with the state education department. It should not take decisions unilaterally. This is what the Supreme Court said now. We stand vindicated. The Governor must understand that he cannot take such decisions without consulting the state education department,” said TMC state general secretary Kunal Ghosh.