Nearly 20 hours since West Bengal Governor C.V. Ananda Bose sent two sealed missives to the Central and State governments, neither the Raj Bhavan nor the State secretariat divulged details of the letter.
Mr. Bose sent the letters late Saturday night following an intense war of words with the State government over his appointing interim Vice-Chancellors in eight universities.
The ruling Trinamool Congress on Sunday lashed out at the Governor, accusing him of "deliberately adopting a confrontationist approach on behalf of the BJP".
The saffron party hit back and accused the Trinamool of “humiliating the Governor by attacking him for his efforts to clean up the mess in the State’s education system”.
State Education Minister Bratya Basu did not react to the sealed letter.
On Saturday, minutes after Mr. Bose warned of a “much bigger action” at midnight [the despatch of letters], Mr. Basu mocked the Governor by calling him the “new vampire in town”.
Trinamool’s Rajya Sabha MP Santanu Sen alleged that the Governor’s latest act of sending confidential letters stems from “his wish to be in the good books of the BJP with an eye on a plum posting in New Delhi as a reward”.
"The Governor is destroying the State's higher education sector by violating all rules, statutes and constitutional provisions. Despite the State pointing out the anomalies in his action, he appears nonchalant and has adopted a confrontationist stance because of the support of the BJP," Mr. Sen said.
Trinamool State spokesperson Kunal Ghosh said it was clear that the Governor "is acting at someone's behest."
Responding to the Trinamool’s allegations, BJP State president Sukanta Majumdar said the Governor was trying to clean up the “mess created by the ruling party in the higher education sector” in the last decade. “He is working overtime to end the era of politicisation, intimidation and threat on campuses of State universities.”
“The ruling party is humiliating the Governor in the most unsavoury manner as it does not like his initiative for improving the education sector. It is not concerned about the fate of students who suffer due to the chaotic situation in several State universities which remain headless owing to the Trinamool Congress’s blatant partisan policy of putting its own candidates in the V-C’s posts,” Mr. Majumdar told reporters.
The Governor, in his capacity as the Chancellor of State-run universities, recently appointed interim Vice-Chancellors for eight varsities, including the prestigious Presidency University, MAKAUT and the University of Burdwan, a step which was severely criticised by the Chief Minister as a bid to interfere with the running of State-administered universities.
Sources said the interim Vice-Chancellors of eight other universities have also been finalised and appointment letters "will be issued soon".
"I want universities in the State to be free of violence, free of corruption and be the best in India," Mr. Bose had said recently to a barrage of criticism from the Trinamool.
