Tamil Nadu Governor R N Ravi on Friday alleged that the state government used police to make "midnight knocks" to deter Vice-Chancellors of state universities from participating in the pre-scheduled annual conference by him in Ooty and claimed that the action was reminiscent of the Emergency days.

When telephonic threats from the state Higher Education Minister (Govi Chezhiaan) to the V-Cs not to take part in the conference did not work, the Chief Minister used police, Ravi alleged, evoking a spontaneous sharp reaction from Chezhiaan.

Lashing out at the Governor for the accusation, the Minister said the Narendra Modi government, which said that politicians should not be appointed as governors, was doing politics through the governors.

“Intimidation politics is ingrained in the BJP’s DNA,” Chezhiaan said in a statement here.

In a post on the social media platform X, Ravi claimed that one V-C was taken to a police station. Others who reached Udhagamandalam received "midnight knocks" on their hotel rooms by the state police.

“They were threatened by police with dire consequences to their life and that they would not be allowed to go home if they attended the conference. Such a gross abuse of police! Is it a police state?” the Governor said.

He further said: “Don’t V-Cs have academic freedom to attend an academic conference within the state? Or is CM Stalin afraid of the consequences of a rise in standards of state universities, which largely caters to Dalit and poor students, and any quality improvement will make them aspirational and inspirational that could be a threat to his political future?" In his statement, the Higher Education Minister said the Governor intentionally "played politics" despite the Supreme Court ruling in favour of the state government on the ten bills re-adopted by the state Assembly.

“It was only after this verdict that Governor Ravi, in his anger, called a conference of Vice Chancellors, wanting to fight against the Tamil Nadu government. Aware of the Supreme Court verdict, the Vice-Chancellors boycotted the conference. How is the state government responsible for this?” Chezhiaan sought to know.

The Minister sarcastically remarked that the Tamil Nadu unit of the BJP got a new president (Nainar Nagenthran) recently and had Ravi wanted to do politics, he could have taken that post.

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