Stating that the appointment of the Punjab Agriculture University vice chancellor was according to law, Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann Thursday accused Governor Banwarilal Purohit of indulging in a “proxy war” and asked him to stop “interfering” in the functioning of the the elected government. Mann also CM shared a letter written in Punjabi and addressed to the Governor on his Twitter handle. However, the Raj Bhavan said the letter they received from the CM was in English and its contents were “materially different” from the one circulated in the media.
The latest confrontation between the Raj Bhavan and the Mann-led AAP government comes two days ago, Purohit asked the CM to remove Dr Satbir Singh Gosal as the PAU V-C saying his appointment in August was done without following University Grants Commission norms and approval of the Chancellor. Governor is the Chancellor of PAU.
In the letter to Purohit, Mann told the Governor that the agriculture university’s V-C is appointed according to the Haryana and Punjab Agricultural Universities Act, 1970. “The V-C is appointed by the Board of the PAU. There is no role of a chief minister or Governor in it,” wrote the CM, while citing examples of previous appointments of Baldev Singh Dhillon and M S Kang as V-Cs of the agriculture university.
He said no approval of the Governor was sought in appointing any of the previous V-Cs. “Therefore, Dr Gosal has also been appointed as per law, like it used to be done earlier. Dr Gosal is a scientist of repute. He is a respected Sikh. Your orders of his removal has left the Punjabis across the world very upset,” Mann said.
He also mentioned the recent run-ins that the Raj Bhavan had had with his government in the recent past.
“For the past a few months, you have been constantly interfering in the functioning of the government, which was elected with a huge mandate. First you created an obstacle in convening the Punjab Assembly session, then you cancelled the appointment of the vice chancellor of Baba Farid University of Health Sciences, Faridkot, and now you have ordered the cancelling of the appointment of PAU V0C,” said Mann.
In a statement, a Raj Bhavan spokesperson said, “There is a letter in circulation in media which is in Punjabi, alleged to have been written by Chief Minister, Punjab to the Governor, Punjab about the appointment of Vice Chancellor of PAU, Ludhiana. This letter has not been received in Punjab Raj Bhavan till this moment.”
“However, the letter received in Punjab Raj Bhavan is in English and the contents of both the letters are materially different,” the spokesperson added.
The Governor’s Office has sought clarification from the CM as to which of his two letters is authentic and why the letter written in Punjabi has been circulated to the media before and without sending it to the Punjab Raj Bhavan, said the statement.
