COIMBATORE: With the change of guard in Tamil Nadu, a few vice-chancellors and academicians holding key positions, who had closely identified themselves with the erstwhile DMK rulers, may find the going tough. Ever since the AIADMK secured a landslide victory on Friday, academic circles have been abuzz with talk of the difficulties certain vice-chancellors are likely to encounter while discharging their duties due to their political allegiance.
For instance, University of Madras Vice-Chancellor G Thiruvasagam has publicly projected himself as a protege of former Chief Minister M Karunanidhi and his elder son and Union minister M K Alagiri. He had even participated in the latter’s birthday celebrations in Madurai.
Immediately after assuming office, he had launched a Master of Arts programme in Kalaignar Thought. Earlier, when he was heading the affairs of the Bharathiar University in Coimbatore, he had commissioned the translation of Karunanidhi’s literary works into Chinese and English.
Similarly, Tamil Nadu Open University Vice-Chancellor Kalyani Anbuchelvan is the daughter-in-law of former finance minister K Anbazhagan and has openly hailed DMK leaders in public forums.
Going by the book, the State government cannot remove them until the end of their tenure, but the apprehension is that if it chooses it can pose stumbling blocks in different ways.
Likewise, Prof A Ramasamy, vice-chairman of the Tamil Nadu State Council for Higher Education (TANSCHE), has been associated with the DMK since his student days. In a book he authored last year on the DMK’s history, he was bitterly critical of AIADMK chief J J Jayalalithaa.
However, sources close to Ramasamy pointed out that in 2001, when Jayalalithaa returned to power, he was allowed to complete his term as vice-chancellor of the Alagappa University smoothly, since he did not bring in politics into the university administration. Now, he has another year to go for his tenure to end.
TANSCHE member-secretary Baskaran, incidentally, happens to be former higher education minister K Ponmudy’s PhD guide. But, he has largely remained a non-controversial person without publicly taking positions.
While it is nothing new for academicians to associate themselves ideologically or politically with either of the two principal Dravidian parties in the State, usually those in top positions avoid making their allegiance public and restrict themselves to extending backroom support or giving policy inputs to the government.
Academics pointed out that in the last five years, the appointment of vice-chancellors in many of the universities was based on either the proximity of the individuals to former Chief Minister M Karunanidhi’s family members or their capacity to influence certain middlemen in Raj Bhavan. An IAS official and a middleman in the Secretariat, who were close to K Ponmudy, too played a key role in university affairs.
This extra-constitutional group allegedly decided by rotation who should be the vice-Chancellor, and also got persons with no competence nominated to the syndicates, senates and academic councils of several universities for extraneous consideration.
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