Caste, religious factors delay VC pick

CALICUT UNIVERSITY

Caste, religious factors delay VC pick

Rajeev.KR@timesgroup.com

Kozhikode: 20.06.2020

The delay in appointing the new Calicut University vice-chancellor has brought to fore the spectacle of various caste and religious organisations coming out in the open in support of the different shortlisted candidates.

Governor and chancellor Arif Mohammed Khan is yet to make a final decision even 26 days after the three-member search committee submitted two separate lists to him.

The university has recently seen protests by the Campus Front and Fraternity Movement, saying the ‘varsity doesn’t want a Sangh Parivar VC’.

Meanwhile, the state committee of the All India Confederation of SC/ST Organisations has petitioned the governor demanding the appointment of C A Jayaprakash, principal scientist at the Central Tuber Crops Research Institute, Thiruvananthapuram. Jayaprakash belongs to the SC community and tops the list submitted by search committee member and Jawaharlal Nehru University vice chancellor M Jagadeesh Kumar. The Kerala Pulaya Maha Sabha also came out in support of Jayaprakash.

This was after the state government and UGC representative in the search committee backed two different candidates in the lists submitted to the governor on May 18.

The state government had backed Prof K M Seethi of the School of International Relations and Politics at the Mahatma Gandhi University who was preferred by two search committee members –– planning board vice chairman V K Ramachandran and the then chief secretary, Tom Jose.

Higher education minister K T Jaleel, too, had conveyed to the governor the state government's preference for Seethi. However, Seethi retired from service on May 28 after turning 60, the age limit for being selected as VC.

It is learnt that the state government has conveyed to the governor that Seethi is eligible since he was below 60 years of age at the time of submitting application.

Meanwhile, the BJP and RSS had been lobbying for Jayaprakash, leaving the governor to make a choice between the two.

“It is unfortunate that the selection to the top academic post in a varsity is being dragged to the streets on the basis of extraneous considerations like religion, caste and politics,” said syndicate member Rasheed Ahammed.