Dr. Banerjee got release order from the GB Pant Hospital, New Delhi where he was professor and head, department of cardiothoracic surgery, on 30 June and joined the WBUHS on July. The then additional chief secretary, in charge of DHFW disallowed Dr. Banerjee disregarding the fact that the appointment order, signed by the Governor of West Bengal M K Narayanan on 3 February, did not have a deadline for joining in his new post.

The HC verdict took the cue from the Supreme Court judgement on 16 July 2012 in Civil Appeal No.5225 OF 2012 (arising out of SLP(C) No.10577 of 2011) Ashok Kumar Ratilal Patel Vs Union of India, and another Dr. Patel faced the same situation in having been arbitrarily barred from joining as the director of All India Council for Technical Education.

A national talent search scholar, Dr. Banerjee got several prestigious awards in India and abroad and was editor, Indian Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, between 1991 and 1996. His selection was considered as a break from the ‘partyocracy’ that was the dejure system during the CPI(M)-led Left Front government. Interestingly, it was due to the assertive role of the then minister of health Dr. Suryya Kanta Mishra (now the leader of Opposition in West Bengal and a politburo member of CPI-M) that ‘partyocracy’ was nipped in the selection of new VC.

Grapevine had it that the WB chief minister Mamata Banerjee asked the top bureaucracy not to let the incumbent join after June 15.and the executive committee of WBUHS was directed to look out for another person. In the name of search for a suitable VC, sycophants made a beeline before Ms Banerjee.

The SLP is scheduled to come up shortly when the apex court will decide whether the SLP — another similar SLP against the HC orders filed by the WB government — is maintainable. The hearing will begin once the SC gives a nod. The question or controversy that automatically comes up around the SLP is whether it is tantamount to an act of insubordination by the registrar of WBUHS. But he has the mandate from the CM’s secretariat and a coterie of lawyers that have the ear of the CM.

Mamata has breached her assurance of keeping politics out of higher education. The reflex of this broken promise is in the new enactment - passing the West Bengal University Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2012 in end September The higher education minister Bratya Basu, a playwright, who shot into fame with his play Winkle Twinkle with a box office hit, exposing the CPI(M) a few years back, went on record, “The state government should have a say in the selection of vice-chancellors. We have brought an amendment to the act to include the government’s nominee in the search committee for vice-chancellors.” It will not be applicable to the Presidency University, which enjoys “special status”. Prof. Somak Roy Chowdhury, who took over as the professor and head of the department of physics in the new university and an astrophysicist of global fame, told this correspondent, “We have absolute autonomy at the Presidency University” — implicitly statement that there is as yet no interference, political or apolitical.

At Viswa-Bharati, a central university, the search panel consists of two representatives of the university — one each named by the executive council and court — the other selected by the Union ministry of human resource. The WBUL(A)B, 2012 is distinctively different from the system in vogue at the Viswa-Bharati as there is no hedge against the choice of the university’s representative from amongst those who do not hesitate to dance to the government’s (read CM’s) tune.

A professor of Calcutta Medical College & Hospitals, who managed to keep himself away from ‘partyocracy’ of the LF regime, criticised the whimsical decision to keep the post of VC of WBUHS in limbo for several months. “Students who passed out the final MBBS examination did not get their diploma on time as it has to have the signature of Vice Chancellor. This is known to academics whom the CM relies on but did not caution her about the matter.”

‘Partyocracy is out, megalomania is in’, quipped a leading academic who is infamous for his acid tone. (IPA Service)