Amid a row with Governor R.N. Ravi over control of universities, Chief Minister M.K. Stalin on Tuesday said that the Chief Minister, “elected by the people”, should be the Chancellor of all State universities so that the people’s collective wish could be fulfilled.
Bills have been adopted in the Assembly towards this, he said at the convocation of The Tamil Nadu Dr. J. Jayalalithaa Music and Fine Arts University in Chennai.
In a special session last Saturday, the Assembly had re-adopted several Bills seeking to divest the powers of the Governor in matters of selection, appointment and removal of Vice-Chancellors of State-run universities and vest the same with the government. Mr. Ravi had “withheld assent” for these Bills and returned them. The government has since resent the re-adopted Bills to the Raj Bhavan, even as the Supreme Court is seized of the issue. In his convocation address, Mr. Stalin pointed out that the Chief Minister was the Chancellor of this particular university and contended that only if the Chief Minister was the Chancellor, universities would develop.
“Only after realising that this objective would be destroyed if it [the Chancellor post] is vested with others, the then Chief Minister Jayalalithaa had in 2013 decided that the Chancellor of this university would be the Chief Minister. She could be whole-heartedly lauded for this. I commend [her] after coming to think of the prevailing circumstances,” he said.
Referring to the awarding of honorary doctorates to playback singer P. Susheela and musicologist B.M. Sundaram, Mr. Stalin said only because the Chief Minister remained the Chancellor of this university, the wishes of the people could be fulfilled through such decisions.
“This is why we say that the Chief Minister should be the Chancellor of all universities. We have adopted Bills in the Assembly for this purpose,” Mr. Stalin said, adding: “The Supreme Court is hearing cases related to this. We expect good news.”
He further reiterated the State’s stand that the subject of ‘Education’ must be transferred from the Concurrent List to the State List in the Constitution. “Only this will help in [providing] education to all. I don’t want this only for Tamil Nadu. I am advocating this for all the States in India.”
The Chief Minister also announced that the subsidy for The Tamil Nadu Dr. J. Jayalalithaa Music and Fine Arts University would be increased to ₹3 crore from the next financial year and said a sum of ₹1 crore would be allocated for the university’s research centre, library and other facilities.
During his speech, Mr. Stalin said he was a huge fan of P. Susheela and used to listen to her songs while travelling.
Mr. Stalin said ‘Nee Illadha Ulagathile Nimathi Illai’ was his favourite song.
