Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan, on Tuesday, June 20, said that the “collapse of the higher education sector is worse than the collapse of the law and order”. The Governor was reacting to numerous reports about alleged fake certificate cases and other malpractices involving activists of the Students Federation of India (SFI), the student wing of the ruling CPI(M), at higher education institutions in the state.
His comment comes on the day that Kayamkulam police took up a case suo motu and announced that they are conducting an inquiry into the alleged fake certificate issue of SFI Alappuzha district committee member Nikhil Thomas. It has been alleged that Nikhil had obtained a fake undergraduate certificate and enrolled for a masters programme. Earlier this month, former SFI leader K Vidya who was also a student of the Maharaja’s College in Ernakulam, was alleged to have forged a certificate of experience claiming that she worked as a guest lecturer at the institution. Vidya has been absconding ever since a police case was filed against her.
The Governor, who is also chancellor of state universities, said that if one is able to do all this because one belongs to a particular student's organisation, then it's a serious issue, adding that he will be looking into all such cases. "Your becoming a member of a particular student organisation means you have a passport to do all kinds of illegal things,” he alleged. He also added that the ‘collapse’ of higher education was a more serious issue than the collapse of law and order. “I say we are inching towards the collapse of the constitutional and legal machinery in the state as far as higher education is concerned,” Deccan Chronicle quoted the Governor as saying.
(With IANS inputs)