Bihar’s ruling NDA on Thursday polished up its preparations to begin a campaign against governor Devanand Konwar’s allegedly unilateral decisions on the latest appointment of university V-Cs even after Mr Konwar claimed there was no disagreement between him and chief minister Nitish Kumar on the issue.
The governor’s strong defence of his choice of six V-Cs and five pro-V-Cs and his insistence that the appointments were made after consultations with the state government and as per the relevant laws have appeared to many JD(U) and BJP leaders as an inflexible picture of gubernatorial arrogance. With most ministers feeling annoyed with the governor for quite some time, it seems to have made little difference that Mr Konwar has now claimed to have been “in full agreement with the Nitish government” and that Mr Kumar had left the appointment of V-Cs entirely on him.
In an unusually scathing criticism of Bihar’s human resource development (HRD) department and HRD minister P.K. Shahi, Mr Konwar denied there was any controversy in the appointment of V-Cs made by the Raj Bhavan. “I am in full agreement with the Nitish government. But some people feel it is P.K. Shahi government,” Mr Konwar was quoted as having said in an interview published on Thursday. “The HRD department cannot become the government,” he added.
While Mr Konwar maintained that he and Mr Kumar held two consultation meetings on the appointment of V-Cs, he clarified that the two laws guiding university affairs had no scope for the state government recommending names of people for appointment as V-Cs. “At a very maximum, they can only suggest some names during consultation. It cannot be binding on the chancellor,” said Mr Konwar in the interview.
Sources said a livid HRD minister P.K. Shahi had shot off a letter to the CM seeking his nod for restricting the V-Cs’ financial powers.