Explainer: The controversy surrounding Karnataka’s RDPR University bill

The controversial Karnataka State Rural Development and Panchayat Raj University (Amendment) Bill, 2024 that proposes to remove the Governor as head of the university, was introduced in the state’s Legislative Assembly on Thursday.

The bill will replace Thaawarchand Gehlot with chief minister Siddaramaiah as the chancellor of the varsity.

An ongoing personal vendetta rift between Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah and governor Thaawarchand Gehlot has worsened further with the Karnataka cabinet on November 30 approving the draft amendment bill that proposes to replace the governor with the chief minister as the chancellor of the state’s Rural Development and Panchayat Raj University.

This move has received widespread criticism from academicians and the opposition BJP in the state as it is viewed as a move to curb the power of the governor Gehlot over the higher education system in Karnataka. The Karnataka State Rural Development and Panchayat Raj (Amendment) Draft Bill 2024 has proffered to transfer the governor’s powers to the chief minister. The draft bill will become law once it is tabled and passed in the Legislative Assembly and Legislative Council in the upcoming Winter Session. The bill pertaining to this Gadag based varsity, however, must have the governor’s assent.

Not only is this development being viewed as an academic routine but as a culmination of a standoff between the Gehlot and chief minister. Gehlot who served four terms as the National General Secretary, Bhartiya Janta Party most recently served as the Cabinet Minister of Social Justice & Empowerment between 2019 and 2021 prior to being appointed the governor for Karnataka.

Trouble has been brewing between Siddaramaiah and Gehlot since July this year after allegations of corruption and involvement in the illegal allotment of housing plots to Siddaramaiah’s wife Parvathi by the Mysore Urban Development Authority (MUDA). Questions were raised over how his family bought the property which had previously been dropped from a government acquisition process in 1998 when Siddaramaiah was deputy chief minister of Karnataka.

In connection with this, on August 17 governor Gehlot accorded sanction to a batch of petitions seeking to prosecute chief minister Siddaramaiah under the Prevention of Corruption Act (under Section 17A of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 and Section 218 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), 2023). On August 19, Siddaramaiah moved the Karnataka High Court with a petition to quash the governor’s sanction order for investigations into allegations. On the same day, Siddaramaiah also addressed the media calling Gehlot a “puppet” in the hands of the BJP who was attempting to “destabilize” the state government.

This at the backdrop, the recent development to sideline the governor has been viewed by the opposition as a move to strip the governor off his powers. Calling it “unnecessary political interference” Karnataka BJP’s state president B Y Vijayendra in a statement on social media platform X said, “With a good intention that politics should not mix in education and as per the intent of the constitution, the Governor who is also the constitutional head of the state is the chancellor of the universities. But the government led by Siddaramaiah (CM), which is engaged in a series of corruption, by abusing its existing powers, is trying to pollute the higher education system.

 

 The Congress government, which has been impatient towards the governor since the beginning, sees him as an enemy to cut down on the powers, and it is a conspiracy to upset the constitutional system. This move of the state government is highly condemnable.” Karnataka’s Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister H K Patil, however defended the move stating that this would expedite decision making and that other states like Gujarat and Arunachal Pradesh have set precedence for the same.

As chancellor of a varsity, the governor appoints the Vice-Chancellors by setting up a search committee, recommending a panel of names from which an appointment is made. Chancellor is also vested with the authority to grant leave or institute disciplinary action and award penalties, has the power to nominate certain members to the Executive Council/ Court of the University, can annul decisions of the various university bodies/ authorities which in his view, is against the Act, statutes, ordinances and regulations.

Prof A S Seetharamu, former professor of education, Institute of Social & Economic change, Bengaluru said, “Best in the interest of all is that the governor should be chancellor. Although a political entity with individual ideological preferences, by definition, the governor’s is a non-political post. However, having said this, the recent developments in Karnataka are politically motivated and a spill over of the ongoing war between the two. There are other states which have set a similar precedent. In West Bengal, the CM has replaced the governor as chancellor of all varsities. 

 

“Unfortunately, our higher education system operates in a manner that irrespective of whoever is appointed the chancellor, there is no escape to political interference. It is time for the academic community to stand up against any political interference and stand for an unbiased watch over the system. In this context, academics who do politics are worse than professional politicians. Neither governor nor chief minister as chancellor assure autonomy. Academics must claim it does not surrender,” he said.