Former interim VCs of Bengal allege defamation by governor
Twelve former interim vice-chancellors (VCs) of state-aided universities of Bengal, whose tenures were not extended by Governor CV Ananda Bose last June, have accused the governor of defaming them.
Not only that, they have filed a legal notice in which they said that they would file defamation cases against the governor if he did not apologise. A fine of Rs 50 lakh will also be demanded for each one of them.
On September 7, in a video message, the governor, who is the chancellor of all state universities, in a video message, said he could not nominate the interim vice-chancellors appointed by the state government as full-time VCs because they were “some were corrupt, some stand accused of harassing a female student, some were playing politics”.
The 12 VCs, who are part of a forum called Educationists’ Forum, said at a press conference on September 15, a week after the governor’s comments, that this statement had cast aspersions on their characters without any proof.
Moreover, they pointed out that this was not the reason cited by the governor in June when he asked them to hand over their resignations.
He had then said that he could not renew their posts as they had not sent him the weekly reports he demanded. The VCs said they could not do this as it would have meant bypassing the state Education Department, which would have gone against a December 2019 state directive. The directive says all such reports must be routed through the Education Department, which is in charge of the universities.
“Did we become VCs so we could do all these? My friends and relatives are questioning me about these accusations. How will I face a female student when she comes to know that her teacher faces such a grave accusation? If we don’t protest, people will believe the allegations are true,” Asutosh Ghosh, a former interim VC of Calcutta University and Green University, said at the press conference.
