Even though the state government passed a bill in the Assembly substituting the governor with the chief minister as chancellor of state-run universities, the latter, who is yet to sign the Bill, has instead exercised his powers as the incumbent chancellor to appoint the vice-chancellor of Rabindra Bharati University (RBU), besides seeking information on criminal charges dropped against MLAs and MPs by the state government since May 2021.

The governor, Jagdeep Dhankhar has announced that as the chancellor he has appointed Dr Mahua Mukherjee, a professor of the dance department of RBU, as the new vice-chancellor of the university in terms of section 9(1)(b) of the Rabindra Bharati Act, 1981. He clarified that the decision was based on the recommendations of the ‘search committee’, which had also proposed two other names – Dr Sanjib Kumar Datta, a professor in the mathematics department of Kalyani University and Dr Debashish Bandopadhyay from the department of English at RBU.

The appointment was made at a time when the state government expects the governor to sign the West Bengal University Laws (Amendment) Bill that replaces him with the chief minister as the chancellor. Mr Dhankhar has clarified that he will not sign the Bill till he verifies they are not violating any laws or Supreme Court rulings. He also added that replacing him as the chancellor will hurt the education system in the state that is allegedly reeling under corruption. His present move reiterated his stance.

The governor has also sought information from the state’s chief secretary HS Dwivedi on criminal charges dropped against MLAs and MPs by the state government since May, last year. He said the information should be sent to his office by 11 July, and warned the chief secretary that he allegedly failed to provide information sought earlier on the All India Services (Conduct) Rules, 1968. The Governor insisted that the chief secretary also send him an explanation of his failure.

The governor’s need for such information coincidentally comes right after a Trinamul delegation, headed by cabinet minister Bratya Basu, submitted a memorandum to the governor demanding a CBI probe against the Leader of Opposition, Suvendu Adhikari, who was allegedly accused by the chief of Saradha chit-fund group, Sudipta Sen of extortion.

The tension between the state government and the governor continues to remain on the boil as Mr Dhankhar yesterday wrote to the chief minister Mamata Banerjee, asking her to withdraw her statement where she allegedly declared “a day of jihad against the BJP” during her meeting at Asansol on 28 June. His reaction came after a delegation of BJP, led by Adhikari, met the governor seeking his intervention in the matter. Dhankhar observed that the chief minister’s alleged remark is “most unfortunate” and indicated “constitutional anarchy”.