Tamil Nadu Higher Education Minister K Ponmudi on Tuesday accused Governor R N Ravi of attempting to infuse politics among the students under the guise of convocation at the Madurai Kamaraj University and announced that he would boycott the ceremony. Normally, the university’s Vice Chancellor decides on the event and whom to invite. But despite being the State Higher Education Minister and Pro Chancellor of the varsity, as well, neither he nor his department secretary were consulted on inviting the speakers for Wednesday’s function, the minister claimed.
The Vice Chancellor’s office claimed it was following instructions from the Governor’s office while the latter said, when contacted, that procedure is being followed. “The university has decided the chief guest for the event without consulting me and I am the Pro Chancellor of MKU. Normally, no one is invited as guest of honour for such functions. This is a wrong precedence and nothing but politics,” Ponmudi told reporters here.
“This raises suspicion that the governor is attempting to infuse politics among the students through the convocation ceremony,” the minister said and claimed when the department secretary and officials contacted, the Vice Chancellor’s office replied they were carrying out instructions from the Governor’s office. “When we asked the Governor’s office, they said they will do it like this. I have decided to boycott the convocation ceremony as Pro Chancellor, as there is suspicion that the Governor (R N Ravi) is attempting to infuse politics among university students,” Ponmudi said.
The Governor is only a nominal executive appointed by the Central government and his duty is to meet the aspirations of state where he serves, Ponmudi said. “But here, the Governor is conducting himself like a Pracharak propagating the Centre’s policies including those on education,” Ponmudi alleged and pointed out that the state government under the guidance of Chief Minister M K Stalin has formed a separate committee to formulate the State Education Policy.
He took exception to Union Minister L Murugan being invited to speak as guest of honour before him and said this was gross violation of the protocol as normally the Pro Chancellor’s address precedes the speeches of other speakers. Advising the Governor to read the history, particularly about the Dravidian history, the minister said, “We have many ‘isms’ like Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, etc. No one should speak without knowing the Dravidian history. Humanism is the basis of Dravidianism which treats all people as equal and encourages them to live in harmony.”
Read all the Latest News, Breaking News, watch Top Videos and Live TV here.
Comments
0 comment