Kolkata:

Two confidential sealed letters, one sent to the state Secretariat and the other to the Centre, is the latest flashpoint between West Bengal Governor CV Ananda Bose and state education minister Bratya Basu after the latter accused Mr Bose of trying to “destroy” the higher education system in the state and running a “puppet regime” in universities.

Following Mr Basu’s strong allegations, Governor Bose had on Saturday warned of “midnight action”. 

“Wait for the stroke of midnight today. You will see what is the action,” Governor Bose said. 

As the clock approached midnight, two confidential and sealed letters were dispatched to their destinations, sparking a new twist in the ongoing feud between the two leaders. 

Governor Bose signed the letters shortly after a meeting with Chief Secretary HK Dwivedi at the Bengal Raj Bhavan. The meeting was not made public by either the state government or the Governor’s office. 

Soon after Governor Bose’s stern warning, Mr Basu took a veiled swipe at him, referring to him as the “new vampire in town” and warning people to “beware”.

“See till midnight, see the action BEWARE! BEWARE! BEWARE! New Vampire in the town! Citizens please watch yourselves. Eagerly waiting for the “Rakkhas Prahar” (monster prahar), according to Indian Mythology!,” Mr Basu posted on X, formerly on Twitter. 

“See till midnight, see the action”
BEWARE! BEWARE! BEWARE!
New Vampire in the town! Citizens please watch yourselves. Eagerly waiting for the “Rakkhas Prahar”, according to Indian Mythology!

— Bratya Basu (@basu_bratya) September 9, 2023

In the latest round of the ongoing feud between the West Bengal government and the Raj Bhavan over the appointment of interim vice-chancellors in universities, 

Mr Basu accused the governor of deliberately undermining the state’s higher education system. The minister also accused the governor, who is also the chancellor of state-run universities, of running a “puppet regime” in the universities and of using intimidation tactics to prevent registrars from meeting with the higher education department.

“The honourable governor wants to run a puppet regime by appointing people according to his whims to satisfy someone’s ego. He is making a constant effort to dismantle the higher education system,” Mr Basu said.

The governor recently appointed interim vice-chancellors for eight universities in Bengal, including Presidency University, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad University of Technology (MAKAUT), and the University of Burdwan, a move that was met with heavy criticism from Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who accused the Mr Bose of interfering with the running of state-run universities.

Kolkata:

Bengal Governor CV Ananda Bose’s move to appoint interim vice-chancellors of seven universities, including Presidency University, has stirred a hornet’s nest. State education minister Bratya Basu likened him to “James Bond” and said Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankhar, who was his predecessor in Bengal’s Raj Bhavan, compared favourably.

On Sunday, in his capacity as the Chancellor of state-run universities, the Governor had appointed Vice-Chancellors for seven universities. Besides Presidency, the list includes Maulana Abul Kalam Azad University of Technology and University of Burdwan, Netaji Subhas Open University and West Bengal University of Animal and Fishery Sciences.

“The earlier Governor at least used to move files. If I sent a file, he would send a note and I would send a note in return. If we disagreed, we argued, and he knew the law as he was a senior lawyer…There was discussion and dialogue, it was not a monologue like this,” Bratya Basu said today.

“He never left out the state government on decisions. Every time I have spoken to Jagdeep Dhankhar, he wanted to sit at the table and discuss things. We argued over the law, and it happened face to face. But he was not silent operator like James Bond,” Mr Basu added.

The appointments come in the wake of a long war of words. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has bitterly criticised the Governor over the appointments, especially those where the appointees do not have an academic background.

Prof Raj Kumar Kothari has been appointed Interim VC of West Bengal State University, while Justice Subhrakamal Mukherjee, who currently holds interim charge of Rabindra Bharati University, will also be the interim Vice-Chancellor of Presidency University.

The Governor’s office has argued that the university statutes do not require Vice-Chancellors to have an academic background.