No need of keeping governor post, says Bengal education minister Bratya Basu

KOLKATA: The West Bengal government and Governor are once again at loggerheads, with state higher education minister Bratya Basu saying that “there is no necessity of keeping the post of the Governor” which was created in the British era, referring to the post as a ‘White Elephant’. Basu slammed Bose for being both the ‘Chancellor’ and ‘Vice-Chancellor’.

Fresh trouble erupted when Governor CV Ananda Bose called a meeting of the existing interim Vice-Chancellors at the Raj Bhawan on Sunday.

The Governor, however, refused to comment on Basu’s remarks and said, “I will only react to my Hon'ble Constitutional colleague chief minister’s comments.”

“A White Elephant-like post was created in the past to control universities in Madras, Bombay and Kolkata. There is no justification in keeping such a post now...but a ‘poet’ is sitting in Raj Bhawan (indicating CV Ananda Bose) who is now trying to control power,” Basu said.

“There is a group which wants to control everything, the ones who say that he is Chancellor and also Vice-Chancellor,” Basu said. Earlier this month, Bose had said that he would be functioning as the Vice-Chancellor of the state universities, where there are no interim VCs. This led to a tussle between the governor and the state government. The government had also opposed Bose’s appointing a former judge as VC of the Rabindrabharati University. Basu’s verbal duel with the Governor has been going on over the last few months with him even calling Bose ‘James Bond.’