Kolkata: West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar was prevented from presiding over Jadavpur University convocation after students greeted him with black flags on Tuesday.
"Rule of law is nowhere in sight. As constitutional head concerned," said Dhankhar, who was shown black flags with posters reading 'BJP activist Mr Jagdeep Dhankhar Go back'.
Members of the university's staff association, which is backed by the ruling Trinamool Congress, also blocked his convoy at gate number 5 of the university at 10.30 am.
"I am amazed that the Vice-Chancellor is in passive mode and silent spectator to this unseemly spectacle that augurs painful sliding of our system," Dhankhar said.
While the convocation was scheduled to start at 11 am, it commenced with the inaugural speech of Jadavpur University Vice-Chancellor Suranjan Das in the absence of Chancellor at 12. 05 pm after the Dhankhar left the varsity premises.
"Our Chancellor's (Dhankhar) comment on the protest against NRC, CAA is outrageous, to say the least. He has shied away from performing his independent role as a Chancellor at times. His opinions favoring communal forces is a grave challenge to the autonomy of the institution. We would oppose any fascist, communal forces that threatens to undermine the democratic space that our campus offers," said Debraj Debnath, SFI Jadavpur University Local Committee secretary.
"The role of our Honorable Governor and Chancellor has come under heavy criticism following the arrival of Babul Supriyo in an event organized by ABVP and the resulting vandalism unleashed by ABVP hooligans," said Afreen Begum, JU SFI member.
"I am happy to receive the degree and the Best Student of the Year award from the Vice-Chancellor and not from the Chancellor today. We believe that the presence of our respected teachers would suffice to receive our academic recognition, instead of a personality who deeply believes in divisive and sectarian politics," said U Ganguly, first year Masters student of Jadavpur University.
Meanwhile, the Governor later in the day held a press conference at Raj Bhavan where he had been critical of the state government.
He said that a kind of policy paralysis can be seen as the principal secretary of the higher education department has not been able to inform him about the programme at JU or at Calcutta University. Dhankhar also accused the government of non-cooperation.
He said that the state government should have taken adequate measures keeping in mind his scheduled visit to the JU.
He said that he has been 'pained' after seeing the spectacles in an educational institution. He also blamed the JU authorities for its failure to check the incidents.
The Governor has called a meeting at Raj Bhavan on January 13 with the vice-chancellors of various universities, including JU, where he would like to discuss various issues. The principal secretary of the higher education department has also been asked to attend the meeting. He said that he was hopeful that the Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee would initiate a dialogue with him in this regard within a fortnight.