CHENNAI: CPI state secretary M Veerapandian on Saturday rejected the explanation given by TVK ministers on Friday that they were unaware of the controversial circular directing universities to monitor students affiliated to Left parties. The chief minister and the ministers should direct bureaucrats; but the opposite is happening in Tamil Nadu, he said.“No,” Veerapandian said when asked whether the Left parties accepted the ministers’ explanation that the circulars had been issued by officials without their and the CM’s knowledge.“This is not a govt run by officials. Officials are merely servants of the people and the elected govt, as per the Constitution. Officials should not guide the CM. Only the ministers and the CM, who are representatives of the people, should guide the officials. It is upside down here (in Tamil Nadu),” Veerapandian said at a joint press meet with CPM state secretary P Shanmugam.On the circular directing universities to collect information on students and faculty, Veerapandian said the govt could go ahead with the exercise if it wanted. “Let them conduct the survey in universities, starting with Oxford University, to any university here in Tamil Nadu. Everywhere, professors and students are on the side of the Left. But they cannot complete the survey in one lifetime,” he said.On whether the Left parties would attend the Sept 9 consultative meeting of TVK allies and friendly parties on the formation of a new front, Shanmugam said the two Left parties would hold a meeting and arrive at a consensus. “We will take a decision well ahead of the meeting and disclose our stand,” he said.The Left parties had refrained from attending the July 1 meeting of TVK allies and friendly parties, maintaining that they would continue to extend support from outside the alliance.
