BJP criticises Sheila Dikshit over VC's appointment

The BJP Sunday criticised Kerala Governor Sheila Dikshit for signing an order appointing the new vice-chancellor of Mahatma Gandhi University despite having resigned from the governor's post.

Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) state unit president V. Muraleedharan said here it was most unfortunate for a governor, who has already resigned, to sign an order to appoint Babu Sebastian as new vice-chancellor of the MG University.

"We will initiate legal steps against the new vice-chancellor as he does not have the requisite qualifications prescribed by the UGC," he said.

Dikshit, who as the governor is the chancellor of the Kottayam-based university, Saturday signed the order to appoint Sebastian as the vice-chancellor of the university.

In May, Dikshit inked an order to remove the then vice-chancellor A. V. George, after it was found that he had misrepresented his qualification in the documents submitted before a search committee.

BJP's state unit general secretary K. Surendran Sunday said the central government should intervene on the issue.

"Sebastian got the post because he is a Kerala Congress (Mani) party leader. He does not have the UGC prescribed qualifications," said Surendran.

Sebastian is currently the director at the State Institute of Educational Technology, Thiruvananthapuram.

Congress legislator Benny Behanan, who was part of a committee that selected Sebastian, told IANS that they did go through all the papers submitted by Sebastian and found that everything was in order.