JU Convocation ceremony deferred after students refuse to accept degree from Guv
Kolkata: Jadavpur University convocation ceremony has been deferred after students refused to accept their degrees from Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar who happens to be the Chancellor of the university.
"The convocation programme of 24 December this year, as decided earlier has been now deferred," said Pradip Kumar Ghosh, Pro-Vice-Chancellor of Jadavpur University, after the emergency Executive Committee (EC) meeting on Saturday. The meeting was conducted after a section of students submitted a deputation to the university authorities mentioning that they will boycott Dhankhar, during the convocation. The convocation, that was scheduled to be held on Tuesday, can be divided into two parts Academic convocation and Special convocation. While the Academic convocation consists of felicitation of Graduate and Post Graduate students, the Special convocation is where the Governor confers DSc and DLitt.
"We have deferred the Special convocation. We will sit for a court meeting in connection with the Academic convocation issue on Monday," said an official of the varsity. The students had threatened to show black flag and wear black badges, if Dhankhar visited the campus on the day. Eminent scientist and Bharat Ratna recipient Prof C N R Rao, former foreign secretary Salman Haidar and veteran Bengali poet Sankha Ghosh are expected to be conferred Honorary doctorates at the convocation of the varsity.
"On Friday, we had submitted a deputation regarding the convocation that we want to boycott the Governor. And we want don't him to be present on the university premises on the convocation because during the last three months he had deliberately pushed the propaganda of BJP and RSS. He did not do anything which a Governor or Chancellor should do," said Debraj Debnath, SFI Jadavpur University Local Committee secretary.
"We had asked the EC if there was any way to boycott him because on September 19, when he came to the university and rescued his own 'partymen'. Being a Chancellor of the university he was not bothered about the security was of the students," informed Soupan Ghosh, co-ordinator of TMCP Jadavpur Unit.
State Education minister Partha Chatterjee said that the students have already held protest rallies against NRC and CAA while the Governor's reaction on the issue has been like a BJP spokesperson. "If student community is angry with the Governor on this issue, I have nothing to say," he said.
Dhankhar, who was intimidated about the deferment of the convocation through a letter by the university authorities on Saturday said that such trends indicate massive politicisation and fear at the temple of education by the state government.
He added that court meetings of a number of universities has been cancelled without informing him.
