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Kerala Gov Arif Mohd. Khan shocked over VC’s language: All you need to know about controversy over conferring D.Litt on President Kovind

Arif Mohammad Khan's proposal to bestow D.Litt on President Kovind was turned down by Kerala University vice-chancellor Mahadevan Pillai without consulting it with the University Syndicate.

The controversy over honouring D.Litt to the President of India Ram Nath Kovind by Kerala University has escalated further as Kerala Governor Arif Mohammad Khan came down hard against the vice-chancellor, expressing his staunch disagreement with the letter written by him.

What is the controversy about?

It all started when Governor of Kerala Arif Mohammed Khan, in his capacity as a Chancellor of Govt. universities gave a proposal to VC of the Kerala University to confer upon an honorary doctorate in Literature to President Ram Nath Kovind. According to the protocol of the University, any such matter concerning giving an Honourary doctorate is discussed before the University syndicate. However, the proposal was turned down by vice-chancellor Mahadevan Pillai in a hand-written letter and in response to the request by governor Khan, the VC responded that the university syndicate had turned down the proposal.

Appalled by this gesture, Arif Mohd. Khan spoke to the media and narrated the entire incident. “I was shocked by the language of the letter used by the vice-chancellor of the University of Kerala and it took me 10 minutes to recover from the shock”. What astonished Arif Mohammad Khan was that the person of the stature of VC was unable to write two lines in a letter without mistakes.

It was earlier confirmed that The Vice-chancellor had altogether rejected the request of honouring the President with D. Litt without consulting the University syndicate. ”The members of the Syndicate turned it down” said the VC in the letter to Khan. The Congress-led opposition accused VC Pillai of failing in his duties by rejecting the proposal without placing it before the Syndicate for discussion. Following the controversy, Congress leader KC Venugopal wrote a letter to the President accusing the Kerala Governor and the State Govt of dragging the President’s office in political disputations.

Arif Mohammad Khan shocked after VC rejects his request without consulting with University Syndicate

Accusing the Vice-Chancellor of his irresponsible actions, Arif Mohd. Khan spoke to the media on January 10. He said, “In reply to the instruction, the VC responded that the university syndicate had turned down the proposal. When I asked to give it in writing, he handed over a two-line handwritten statement to the Governor. The language of the letter has shocked me as the VC of the oldest university in the country could not even write two lines without mistakes.”

Following the turn of events, Khan wrote a letter to the Pinrayi Vijayan Government over the University’s conduct in this matter and the government provided three letters to the Governor.

Over allegations of dragging the President’s chair in controversies, he said, ”there is no political interference. But I am firm on what I said. I am aware of protocols and other limitations from the time when was elected as a legislator and then a union minister at a young age.”

The ties between Governor Khan and the Communist government had strained over the appointment of VCs in the state-run Universities. He had also accused the Vijayan government of forcing him to sign a letter of re-appointment of Kannur University Chancellor Gopinath Raveendran. Earlier on January 4, amidst escalating controversy, Arif Mohammad Khan stepped down from his duty as a Chancellor of Universities. Last month, Khan had alleged that he was unable to work in an environment where there was ‘too much political interference’.

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OpIndia Staff
OpIndia Staffhttps://www.opindia.com
Staff reporter at OpIndia

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