Court challenge to the appointment of politicians’ wives: Kerala High Court asked- You were planting saplings, so from where did you get teaching experience

In Kerala, the issue of appointment of leaders close to the education department is continuously gaining momentum. On Wednesday, the Kerala High Court commented on Priya, close to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and wife of former Rajya Sabha member KK Ragesh. The court said that when you were planting saplings, how did you get teaching experience.

Priya is associate professor at Kannur University
Priya is Associate Professor at Kannur University. Another candidate had more experience than him for this position, but he was given priority. Her lawyer argued that Priya worked for 6 years as a university level coordinator under the National Service Scheme (NSS). This experience should be added to the teaching experience. On this the court said – NSS does the work of digging pits for planting trees. This is not teaching experience. Priya got this posting with the help of the government.

Actually, many leaders have got their wives appointed in the university on the basis of political influence. Former MP PK Biju’s wife got the post of teacher in Kerala University. The wife of state Industries Minister P Rajeev teaches at Cochin University. Excise Minister MB Rajesh’s wife is teaching at Sri Shankar Sanskrit University in Kaladi. All these appointments have been challenged in the court.

The first case of giving appointment to close ones came in 2016
Earlier, the Kerala High Court had recently stayed the appointment of PM Shehla, wife of Assembly Speaker AN Shamseer, as assistant professor in Kannur University. The Vijayan government is being accused of making government appointments arbitrarily in the last 6 years. The first case of giving appointment to close ones came to light in the year 2016.

The then Industries Minister EP Jayarajan was accused of appointing Sudhir Nambiar, wife’s sister and son of CPI(M) leader PK Smt. After this Jayarajan had to resign.

Mayor seeks nominations from District Secretary to fill 249 posts in Health Department
Arya Rajendran, the CPI(M) mayor of Kerala’s capital city Thiruvananthapuram, recently wrote a letter to the party’s district secretary seeking nominations to fill 249 posts of doctors, nurses and health workers. After this the letter became public. The characters of two other CPI(M) leaders also surfaced this week.

Congress and BJP leaders started protesting against it. He alleges that the leaders of the ruling party are giving appointments to the people of their cadre in violation of the rules.

The leaders of the left parties surrounded the governor, said – interfering in the higher education department
Governor Arif Mohammad Khan has been continuously saying that the government is appointing its close ones in the education department. Recently, he issued notices to the vice-chancellors of some universities, saying that their appointments were made under political pressure. While the CPI(M) alleges that the Governor is continuously interfering in the Higher Education Department.

At the same time, the Governor says that, I will not interfere in the government work until the constitutional machinery is completely destroyed.