The opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is gearing to hit the streets with statewide protests against the incumbent Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) coalition government’s proposal to curb the powers of the governor in 11 state government universities. By law and convention, state governors appointed by the Central government, are ex-officio chancellors of all public universities in every state of the Indian Union. In late December, the MVA government amended the Maharashtra Public Universities Act (MPUA), 2016 to vest the state government with greater power while appointing vice-chancellors, senates and managements of public universities. Under the amendment, the higher and technical education minister will assume the office of ‘pro-chancellor’ of all state government universities. The opposition BJP contends this amendment will curtail the power of the governor/chancellor. The background of this latest face-off between the MVA government and the BJP is that since November 11, 2019, when the Shiv Sena dramatically ended its 25-year alliance with the BJP and coalesced with the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) to form Maharashtra’s MVA coalition, it has been at odds with governor Bhagat Singh Koshiyari, a former activist of the RSS, the ideological mentor of the BJP which has been ruling at the Centre since 2014. In July 2020, Uday Samant, higher and technical education minister, ordered cancellation of final year degree college exams because of the rising number of Covid-19 positive cases in the state. However, Koshiyari took umbrage and wrote a scathing letter to the chief minister Uddhav Thackeray protesting the minister’s intervention without consulting the chancellor’s office. According to the MVA government, despite the chancellor’s position being of a ceremonial figurehead, Koshiyari has been taking more than passing interest in the administrative affairs of public universities in Maharashtra. In October 2020, the Maharashtra higher and technical education ministry constituted a 14-member committee to suggest amendments to MPUA, 2016 as also to implement the National Education Policy (NEP), 2020 in the state. The committee chaired by Sukhdeo Thorat, a former chairman of UGC (University Grants Commission), suggested introducing the position of pro-chancellor to create “a balance of power” between the governor and state government. Moreover, the Thorat committee suggested amendment of s. 12 of the Act under which search panels to select vice-chancellors, submitted their shortlist directly to the chancellor’s office. In the event the governor did not approve the names on the shortlist, he was empowered to direct the search committee to submit a new list. The amended Bill directs the search committee to submit five names to the state government. From the list, the government forwards two names to the governor to approve one. The opposition’s attempt to launch a statewide protest after the winter session was cut short due to rising Covid infections in January. However, the Yuva Morcha and Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) — youth wings of BJP/ RSS — have held several round table conferences, organised student signature campaigns and written letters against the Bill to the state’s chief minister, education minister and the…
