Cabinet minister AL Hek today publicly came out in support of Prof Sherwin May Sungoh as the new Vice-Chancellor of North-Eastern Hill University (NEHU) to replace the divisive Prof SK Srivastava.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA has been heavily involved in attempts to unseat Srivastava, whose term as VC ended in September but was made to stay on as interim head until a new VC is appointed. Hek has raised the need to replace Srivastava in New Delhi on several occasions with Union ministers and senior BJP figures.
“We have tried our level best on this matter and we have met many concern Union ministers, including the DoNER (Development of North East Region) Minister and the Union Minister for Human Resource Development (now Education) Ramesh Pokhriyal,” Hek told reporters after he met with members from the Khasi Students Union’s (KSU) education cell today.
The KSU has also backed Sungoh, who is of NEHU’s Education Department.
Hek also informed that a meeting on the subject was held between him and a national leader of the BJP. On the other hand, the pro-Srivastava faction has also been courting the BJP; one of the Pro-VCs and a supporter of the incumbent VC, Henry Lamin, had been the chief guest at the state conference of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the right-wing student organisation affiliated to the Hindu nationalist Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and BJP, on January 23.
