P. Sanal Mohan resigns from KCHR executive council

The Kerala Council for Historical Research building in Thiruvananthapuram. Academic P. Sanal Mohan has resigned from the executive council of the Kerala Council for Historical Research (KCHR).The social scientist is the fourth member to step down from the KCHR executive council allegedly in protest against the appointment of Vinodkumar Kallolikkal as the council’s chairperson.Prof. Mohan, who was also part of the search committee constituted by the Higher Education department to identify the new chairperson, had opposed the appointment. Historians Janaki Nair, Lakshmi Subramanian and Manu V. Devadevan had earlier resigned from the KCHR executive council.However, official sources have defended the appointment and alleged that the resignations were orchestrated to avoid inquiry into purported irregularities during the previous administration’s tenure.‘Irregular appointments’They claimed that the previous leadership had undertaken irregular appointments during an executive council meeting on December 22, 2025, during which the KCHR director introduced three new members (Dr. Devadevan, V.J. Varghese and Shilpa Satheesh) without prior listing or the involvement of a search committee as mandated. An official inquiry is under way into the appointments.It is also alleged that Prof. Nair and Dr. Subramanian had already completed their official terms and requested to demit office at the time. Withholding their formal exits until the new chairperson assumed office proved that their recent departure is not a principled objection to procedural misconduct.Besides, procedural violations had also been earlier flagged in the alleged move to appoint Dr. Devadevan as KCHR director following the resignation of Dinesan V. A government order had invalidated the proposed selection process, observing that the KCHR executive council had failed to adhere to its framework. ‘Political vendetta’Higher Education Minister Roji M. John attributed the allegations raised by the Opposition to political vendetta. He maintained that a person with strong academic credentials has been appointed to the post.He also questioned why Dr. Kallolikkal, who had previously aligned with a Left teachers’ organisation, was now being branded as having links with the Sangh Parivar. The Minister alleged that the opposition was due to political resentment over an incident in which the academic had thwarted attempts made by a Students’ Federation of India (SFI) leader to pass an examination without appearing for it at the Maharaja’s College. Published - November 12, 2026 07:49 pm IST