The Centre and the Tamil Nadu government should set aside political differences and work together on higher education, especially in appointing vice-chancellors in 17 universities in the State, said G. Viswanathan, founder and chancellor, VIT, on Friday.In his presidential address at the felicitation function for Tamil poet and lyricist R. Vairamuthu in Vellore for Jnanpith Award organised by Tamizhiyakam and hosted by VIT at its campus in Vellore, he said that the Centre and the State government should follow models of cooperative dialogue as practiced in other democracies in the world. “If vice-chancellors are not appointed in 17 universities, then the State’s high gross enrolment ratio in higher education could not translate into quality education,” he cautioned.The Chancellor said Tamil Nadu had received the Jnanpith Award after a gap of 24 years, following P.V. Akilandam (Akilan) and D. Jayakanthan. He described the award as a matter of pride for the Tamils and the State. Vairamuthu, Mr. Viswanathan noted, began writing film songs in the 1980s and has composed more than 7,500 songs and poems over four decades. “A seven-time National Award winner, Mr. Vairamuthu has authored 40 books. His works have been translated into English, Hindi, Malayalam, Telugu, Kannada and Russian,” he said.Mr. Vairamuthu stressed the need for translation of Tamil literature into Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Bengali, Spanish, Mandarin, Russian and French to reach a wider audience. For example, Hindi has received the award 12 times, eight times by Kannada literature, Bengali and Malayalam won it at least six times each, and Urdu literature won five times since the award was instituted in 1961.Former Supreme Court Chief Justice and former Kerala Governor P. Sathasivam, and Tamizhiyakam secretary M. Sukumar were also present on the occasion. Published - August 14, 2026 09:47 pm IST