I am ashamed, have to hang my head in shame: Governor on Kerala University's denial of DLitt to President

The ongoing tiff between Governor Arif Mohammed Khan and Pinarayi Vijayan-led state government over the denial of giving the Honorary DLitt to President of India took a turn for the worse, with the former slamming the Kerala University Vice-Chancellor.

Speaking to the media soon after arriving from Delhi, Khan said he is ashamed and has to hang his head in shame. "Kerala University is one of the oldest universities in the country and the Vice-chancellor cannot even write five lines correctly. He also cannot even speak properly. I was really ashamed," said Khan.

Khan said he was surprised to find out that no convocation has been held at the Kerala University for the past 10 years, so he told the Vice-chancellor (VP Mahadevan Pillai) to hold one. "After a month he came back to me and I told him that I will personally go to the President of India to come and attend the convocation. But on December 5 he calls the Raj Bhavan and I was shocked to hear what he was saying. It took me 10 minutes to regain myself when I heard what he was saying. Soon after that I called the Chief Minister," said Khan.

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A handwritten letter on a piece of paper of the Kerala University VC to Khan has now come out which contains mistakes and it states that the syndicate had turned down the decision to confer the DLitt to the President. 

Khan also slammed the way the Vice Chancellor of the Sree Sankaracharya University of Sanskrit was selected. "I was given just one name and I was told that six others who applied were not eligible. What does this mean, the 6 professors who applied are not at all eligible. This shows the quality of the higher education standards in Kerala," added Khan.

It was on December 31 that former Leader of Opposition Ramesh Chennithala asked Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan to come clean on why the recommendation of Khan as Chancellor to confer an honorary DLitt to President Ram Nath Kovind was shot down. On Monday, Chennithala said the silence of Vijayan is dangerous. "Time has run out and Vijayan cannot remain silent like this anymore. He has to tell what has happened," said Chennithala.