"I'm the Pro-Chancellor of the Madurai Kamaraj University. The convocation ceremony date was decided without consulting me," he said.
Published Jul 13, 2022 | 9:31 AM ⚊ Updated Jul 25, 2022 | 3:38 PM
Tamil Nadu Higher Education Minister K Ponmudy on Tuesday announced he would boycott the Madhurai Kamaraj University's convocation ceremony. (Twitter/KPonmudiMLA)
Tamil Nadu’s Higher Education Minister K Ponmudy on Tuesday, 12 July, announced that he would boycott the convocation ceremony of the Madurai Kamaraj University (MKU).
This came after he accused Governor RN Ravi of politicising convocation ceremonies in state universities.
The convocation ceremony was scheduled for Wednesday, and Union Minister of State for Fisheries L Murugan was invited as the guest of honour.
Ponmudy accused Ravi — the Vice-Chancellor of the varsity, a post he holds as part of his gubernatorial responsibilities — of planning the event without consulting him.
“I’m the pro-chancellor of the Madurai Kamaraj University. The vice-chancellor decided the panel of guests for the convocation ceremony without consulting me,” Ponmudy told reporters.
“Only the university administration decides the convocation dates and the list of invitees. Here, the vice-chancellor decided on the chief guest for the ceremony without informing me,” added Ponmudy.
He said inviting the Union minister as the guest of honour raised the question of whether the governor was infusing politics in academia, and that was why he had decided to boycott the ceremony.
“The Department of Higher Education approached the vice-chancellor’s office only to be told that the chancellor’s office made the decisions. When we sought a reply from the chancellor’s office, they said this is how it has to be done,” Ponmudy added.
Ponmudy also accused Ravi of propagating the Centre’s policies through education, and said Chief Minister MK Stalin had formed a committee to formulate the State Education Policy.
“The governor had asked us to read the National Education Policy. I humbly ask him to read Indian history. He should not comment on Dravidian ideology without knowing history,” the minister said.
GS Nagarajan, general-secretary of Members of Madurai Kamaraj, Manonmaniam Sundaranar, Mother Teresa, and Alagappa University Teachers’ Association, told South First that it was a blatant attack on the university by the governor, who was trying to infuse politics into academia.
