No early end in sight: Why are governor and Kerala govt in a tussle?

The fight between the Vijayan govt and Governor Khan has only intensified since Dec 2019

It all started in December 2019 at Kannur University during the inauguration of the 80th edition of the Indian History Congress when historian Irfan Habib allegedly tried to interrupt the speech by Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan while he was speaking on the issue of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).

From then onwards, the battle between the Pinarayi Vijayan government in Kerala and Khan has intensified —with both locking horns on various issues. Khan, in September 2022 alleged Vijayan’s personal secretary and former Rajya Sabha MP 

K K Ragesh prevented the police from taking action against those who heckled him at the venue of the Indian History Congress (IHC).
 

The IHC incident was followed by a series of incidents in which the governor and the state government were at loggerheads. The ties worsened further when Khan wrote a letter to Vijayan, seeking action against the state finance minister, K N Balagopal, citing that he had “lost his (Khan’s) pleasure”. Balagopal allegedly commented that “those from Uttar Pradesh will not understand the affairs in a state like Kerala”.
 

While some call him the real ‘opposition leader’ of Kerala, the ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF) took out a mega protest march to Raj Bhavan last week. At the event, CPI (M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury stated the BJP was misusing the Constitutional post to destroy Kerala’s higher education sector. Here comes the question of what happened in the educational sector that led to intensified protests against Khan. In October, Khan asked for the resignation of vice-chancellors of 11 universities, claiming rules were flouted during their appointment. Last Monday, the Kerala High Court quashed the appointment of VCs of APJ Abdul Kalam Technological University and the Kerala University of Fisheries and Ocean Studies. According to political experts, the vice-chancellors of nine other universities are also expected to face the same fate.
 

The rules that were allegedly flouted included the violation of the UGC norm that the selection committee should include only academic experts and the search panel should make suggest multiple names for the VC post, and recommend just one candidate.
 

The battle took an ugly turn when Khan during his address during the Budget session in January 2020 said he was going to read the paragraph on the CAA because the chief minister wanted him to read it.
 

Interestingly, the appointment of Ragesh’s wife Priya Varghese as an associate professor of Malayalam at Kannur University was also stayed by the governor in August 2022. Last week, on November 17, the Kerala High Court cited that Varghese was not qualified to be appointed an associate professor.
 

The government then recommended Khan issue an Ordinance to take away the role of chancellor from the governor. Governor holds the office of chancellor in 14 universities.
 

Following this, the Pinarayi Vijayan government has decided to convene an unprecedented session of the state Assembly starting December 5 targeting to bring a Bill to remove the governor from the post of chancellor in state universities. “Both should restrain from any action now. In the issue of vice-chancellors, appointments of the remaining nine are also likely to be cancelled. If the tussle continues and the CPM resorts to attacks like the Raj Bhavan march, the governor may be forced to use more powers given to him by the Constitution,” said Sunnykutty Abraham, a senior political analyst.
 

According to experts, the government’s decision to convene a session of the Assembly was taken with an aim of not just removing the governor from the chancellor post but also delaying the policy address by the governor, supposed 

to happen every year. The government’s strategy is to go for a prolonged session that may extend until February when the Budget is presented, in order to delay the policy address.
 

“Other states also facing similar issues. In the case of removing him from the post of chancellor, the governor may be able to forward the Bill to the President, or the Centre government may look for coming out with a rule that ensures that respective governors are chancellors of universities in all the states,” Abraham added.