Kerala: The minister who courted a series of controversies

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: KT Jaleel courted controversies in succession after chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan appointed him as the minister of higher education in August 2018. It was argued that he was appointed as minister to give a new impetus to higher education sector in state.
But, Jaleel —who was first sworn as the local self-government minister in Pinarayi cabinet— raked up a series of controversies as he started usurping the autonomy of state universities by intervening in academic and non-academic affairs of the varsities.
As the minister started considering university vice-chancellors as his subordinates and vice-chancellors too failing to assert their authority, universities —for the first time in the history of the state— started working as the sub-offices of higher education department. Flouting norms, the department —in association with universities— conducted university adalats, which ended up as avenues for gifting marks at the behest of the minister.
The minister, with his department officials and personal staff, attended adalats in most state universities. The adalats soon attracted criticisms from eminent academicians like higher education council vice-chairman Rajan Gurukkal. In an adalat at MG University, the minister gave instructions to the syndicate to issue orders granting five extra marks to BTech candidates who failed only in one subject. The issue flared up and was challenged before the governor and the court. Following this, the varsity withdrew the marks given at the behest of the minister.
However, it was his intervention to help a BTech student of Kerala Technological University that spelled trouble for Jaleel. The minister, in an adalat, forced the university to change rules regarding revaluation. The minister set up a team of experts to revaluate for the third-time the answer paper of a BTech student who failed in a paper.
As per university norms, revaluation of an answer paper is possible only twice and VC had rejected the request for a third revaluation.
The governor, who is also the chancellor of universities, had later conducted an inquiry into the mark gifting and warned university heads against indulging in similar activities in future. He also rapped the minister for poking his nose into academic affairs of universities. Most of the appointments made in universities since 2018 led to controversies due to the alleged interventions by the minister.
However, the minister defended and justified each of his act by trying to project them as humanitarian interventions. In the thick of several such controversies, he proclaimed his intention to ‘repeat the charges against him’.
The controversy that cost him his chair erupted by 2018-end when Muslim Youth League’s former secretary PK Firos alleged nepotism by saying that the minister had appointed his close relative KT Adeeb as the general manager of minority development corporation by tweaking qualification norms.
Controversies of a more serious nature surfaced when he was accused of keeping close ties with the UAE consulate in the state capital. The minister was quizzed by central investigating agencies on the charges that he imported copies of Quran in large numbers from the UAE and accepted large quantity of dates from that country without following norms.