Remaining firm on his stance to abdicate chancellorship notwithstanding growing criticisms, Governor Arif Mohammed Khan on Thursday said he was prompted by matters of national importance that he could not disclose.
“Besides the issues I had flagged in my letter (to the Chief Minister on December 8), there are others that do not involve the State alone, but concern national dignity and prestige,” he told mediapersons on the sidelines of a programme at Varkala.
Cites precedence
Insisting that his proposal to transfer powers through an Ordinance was a feasible one, the Governor said there had been many instances where the Acts passed by the Assembly had been amended through Ordinances. Claiming that no initiative was taken to arrive at a consensus in the controversy, he said it was up to the government to find a way out of the stalemate.
Mr. Khan said he was willing to transfer his powers as Chancellor to the Pro Chancellor (Higher Education Minister) since “she is very keen on exercising power and claimed her position is not an ornamental one”.
He added he was not interested in being just a “symbolic head” of universities and would never become party to attempts to lower their standards. He also termed “immoral” the reappointment process of the Kannur University Vice Chancellor, for which the government relied on the University Act for reappointing an incumbent Vice Chancellor and the University Grants Commission guidelines to satisfy the age criterion.
