9 Gandhians quit as trustees of Gujarat Vidyapith in protest against RSS-affiliated Governor being made Chancellor

Angry with the Centre imposing RSS-affiliated Gujarat Governor Acharya Devvrat as Chancellor of the prestigious Gujarat Vidyapith set up by Mahatma Gandhi as an autonomous university in 1920, nine prominent Gandhians on Monday resigned as trustees of the institution and called this a sinister move to “erase and alter history” by taking over Gandhian institutions.   The move comes as a shocker on the eve of the convocation function of the 102-year-old heritage institution of learning painstakingly created by the Father of the Nation who remained its Chancellor until his assassination. Stalwarts like Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Dr Rajendra Prasad and Morarji Desai succeeded Gandhi.

“Any healthy democracy can only be rooted in principled public policy. Through this action, the Government has made clear its intention of taking over big, small, strong and weak Gandhian institutions and thereby erase and alter history,” the nine trustees who quit Vidyapith’s highest decision-making body, its Governing Council, asserted in a joint statement. The 24-member governing council had on October 4, 2022, passed a resolution with majority vote of 13 against 9 to appoint Acharya Devvrat, who is known to be close to Baba Ramdev, as the Chancellor – not as an ex-officio post but in his individual capacity.

FPJ unveils Mumbai Schools Survey ’22 on Sept 5The post had fallen vacant after internationally known veteran Gandhian and founder of Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) Elaben Bhatt expressed her inability to continue because of her advanced age of 89 way back in May. The governing council adopted a resolution to accept her resignation and appoint Devvrat on October 4. The nine members, who quit on Monday, had strongly registered their protest against this move and voted against the resolution.

   The joint statement lamented that “The role of State has changed decisively in the last five years. It (the institution) has been subjected to bureaucratic heavy-handedness, where Vidyapith which was established with a special purpose is treated at par with other private universities and narrowly defined rules imposed without any dialogue. ” Tacitly alleging that the central government has been arm-twisting the Vidyapith, they said, “The Trustees recognise that there  may have been lacunae in managing the affairs of Vidyapith, and in the absence of clear rules or because of  interpretation of stringent norms linked to government grants may not always have been followed and out-of-turn promotions given.

” “(But) The current administration has tried its best to dialogue and explain to the authorities concerned that insensitively reversing mistakes made by past administrations would have a detrimental effect on staff livelihoods and well-being. Over 150 letters written by Vidyapith to the authorities have remained unacknowledged,” the statement said. “What is more, the issue of Vice Chancellor’s appointment was raked up (that it was not in order), and the threat of withdrawal of Vidyapith’s deemed university status and withholding of grants.

This, in our view, was patently malicious, unfair and without any sense of proportion,” the trustees said.   What is more shocking, the trustees alleged that “We are told that unreasonable demands relating to the Chancellor’s appointment were made by certain officials. These ranged from, ‘the appointee must not be an adherent of a certain religion’, ‘he must not be opposed to a certain individual, to later a minister and party people (BJP leaders) stating that, ‘Vidyapith’s representations will be heard only if Mr X is appointed as a Chancellor’.

There can never be concrete evidence of such pressures. Thus were the terms of the oral bargain outlined to undermine the institution’s autonomy. ” “That was unprecedented in its 102-year history.

As a result, an issue as important as the appointment of the Chancellor was rushed through, not by consensus but by a badly fractured vote. That was unprecedented as well as completely avoidable. The government’s action runs counter to the goal and purpose of Gujarat Vidyapith and is inimical to the existence of the University.

It is not only tantamount to unethical use of power but is anti-democratic and a disgrace to any Government in a free society. We condemn it in the strongest possible terms,” the trustees asserted.   They stressed that the State should not interfere in the working of the universities, especially the such a unique temple of learning that Gandhi set up on his principle of “Nayi Taleem,” even if it might be receiving grants from the University Grants Commission (UGC).

The trustee signatories of the joint statement are: Narsihbhai Hathila Dr Sudarshan Iyengar, Dr Anamik Shah, Dr Mandaben Parikh, Uttambhai Parmar, Chaitanya Bhatt, Neetaben Hardikar, Michael Mazgaonkar and Kapil Shah.  Delhi: RAF deployed in Shadipur area after man associated with Bajrang Dal and RSS killed.