{"id":38594,"date":"2015-02-14T22:54:30","date_gmt":"2015-02-15T03:54:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=38594"},"modified":"2015-02-14T22:55:01","modified_gmt":"2015-02-15T03:55:01","slug":"state-minister-rajiva-wijesinha-protests-to-president-about-higher-education-minister-kabir-hashim-forcing-ugc-chairperson-to-resign-due-to-pressure-from-futa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=38594","title":{"rendered":"State Minister Rajiva Wijesinha Protests to President About Higher Education Minister  Kabir Hashim Forcing UGC Chairperson to Resign Due to Pressure from FUTA"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><br \/>\nState Minister of Higher Education Prof. Rajiva Wijesinghe today said that it is \u201ccompletely wrong\u201d to bow down to pressure from groups and remove the UGC Chairperson, without even probing the allegations against her.<\/strong>  <\/p>\n<p><strong>Prof. Kshanika Hirimburegama had resigned as the Chairperson of the University Grants Commission (UGC), amid pressure from the Federation of University Teachers\u2019 Associations (FUTA).<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>She had tendered her resignation to President Maithripala Sirisena through the Minister of Highways, Higher Education and Investment Promotion, Kabir Hashim, on 9 February.<\/p>\n<p>Hirimburegama had said that she received a letter from Minister Kabir Hashim stating that the President has ordered her to resign with immediate effect. However, Prof. Wijesinghe had expressed \u201cshock\u201d at the sudden move which took place while he was away abroad.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>\u201cI have sent a letter to the President regarding the situation, because I think it is completely wrong for the Cabinet Minister to issue an order to the UGC Chairperson (to resign) while I was away, without even informing me,\u201d he told Ada Derana.  <\/p>\n<p>The State Minister said that, when contacted by him, even Minister Kabir Hashim conceded that it was carried out due to pressure from the Federation of University Teachers\u2019 Association.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI told him that this is wrong. It\u2019s wrong to take decision based on pressure. That is why we have told everyone; this also happened under the previous government. Many people say the UGC chairperson bowed down to pressure from the minister and the president.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf we are criticizing her for that, then why are we bowing to pressure?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He stated that what the government should do is launch an inquiry if there is a certain allegation against the UGC chief and take necessary action appropriately.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cUsing the President\u2019s name and suddenly ordering her to resign is completely wrong,\u201d Prof. Wijesinghe emphasized.<\/p>\n<p>He reiterated that bowing to pressure and taking such a rash decision at a time when the government is looking to move forward based on policy decisions, is a wrong thing to do.<\/p>\n<p>However, the State Minister of Higher Education did not confirm reports that he has decided to resign from his ministerial portfolio.<\/p>\n<p><em>Courtesy:Ada Derana<\/em><\/p>\n<div id=\"tweetbutton38594\" class=\"tw_button\" style=\"float:right;margin-left:10px;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/share?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdbsjeyaraj.com%2Fdbsj%2F%3Fp%3D38594&amp;text=State%20Minister%20Rajiva%20Wijesinha%20Protests%20to%20President%20About%20Higher%20Education%20Minister%20%20Kabir%20Hashim%20Forcing...%20&amp;related=&amp;lang=en&amp;count=horizontal\" class=\"twitter-share-button\"  style=\"width:55px;height:22px;background:transparent url('https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/wp-content\/plugins\/wp-tweet-button\/tweetn.png') no-repeat  0 0;text-align:left;text-indent:-9999px;display:block;\">Tweet<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>State Minister of Higher Education Prof. Rajiva Wijesinghe today said that it is \u201ccompletely wrong\u201d to bow down to pressure from groups and remove the UGC Chairperson, without even probing the allegations against her. Prof. Kshanika Hirimburegama had resigned as the Chairperson of the University Grants Commission (UGC), amid pressure from the Federation of University &#8230;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=38594\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading &lsquo;State Minister Rajiva Wijesinha Protests to President About Higher Education Minister  Kabir Hashim Forcing UGC Chairperson to Resign Due to Pressure from FUTA&rsquo; &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38594"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=38594"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38594\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38596,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38594\/revisions\/38596"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=38594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=38594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=38594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}