Thiruvananthapuram, Leader of Opposition in the Keralam Assembly Pinarayi Vijayan on Wednesday slammed the state government’s decision to appoint an allegedly “unqualified” person as the Chairperson of the Kerala Council of Historical Research .
Terming it a “highly condemnable” move to sabotage the appointment to the post, Vijayan, in a statement, claimed that the names recommended by the search committee were arbitrarily cut out and a person not considered by the panel was appointed instead.
Senior IAS officer B Ashok is the current principal secretary of the Higher Education Department and was suspended by the previous LDF administration in April this year for public criticism of government policies and social media remarks. Neither the government nor the concerned minister have reacted to the allegations by the opposition leader. Vijayan, in his statement, further claimed that professors Sanal Mohan and Dr V J Varghese, who are members of the search committee constituted by the UDF government, have protested against the undemocratic action by submitting their dissent notes to the government. He also alleged that the same official who worked with the Governor against the government when the bill to remove the Governor from the post of Chancellor was passed, during the time of the LDF government, is now implementing the RSS agenda in the KCHR.
“In addition, the resignation of eminent historians professors Janaki Nair, Lakshmi Subramanian and Manu V Devadevan from the KCHR executive committee also highlights the seriousness of the situation,” he said. “The news that the Higher Education Minister has personal interests behind this also adds to the mystery,” he contended and demanded an immediate review of the government’s decision to install an allegedly unqualified person as the head of KCHR.
