As many as 5,000 students, who had cleared their under-graduate and post-graduate exams, or successfully completed PhDs, in 2017-18, were feted at the 32nd convocation of Ranchi University on Friday with vice chancellor exhorting students to become an “imandar chowkidar’ in life, his use of the BJP’s catch-phrase for the Lok Sabha elections surprising many.

“Shiksha ne, gyan ne aapko khula mastishk diya hai. Cheezon ko behtar dhang se dekhne ki ankhen di hai, vivechna vishleshan karne ka vivek diya hai. Samay ki nabz ko pehchaney. Samay ki pukar ko suney, desh ka prahari baney, imandar chowkidar baney (Education and knowledge have given you an open mind with which you can better understand

issues. Answer the call of the time, stand guard for your country, become an honest chowkidar),” VC Ramesh Kumar Pandey said in his address.

Till the evening, no political party had complained with the district administration against Pandey for using words from the ruling party’s campaign slogan while addressing the convocation.

But his speech was a sure throwback to the one delivered by Union minister Jayant Sinha recently at the IIM-Ranchi convocation where his highlighting of the NDA government’s success led the JMM to complain to the election commission about a violation of the model code.

The commission subsequently directed the Ranchi district administration to lodge an FIR against the BJP MP from Hazaribagh.

Harvard alumnus Jayant, while presiding over the IIM convocation on March 16 as chief guest, spoke of the achievements of the Narendra Modi government, including GST and improved air connectivity. Using the euphemism of “blessings” he had allegedly appealed for votes too.

At RU on Friday, governor Droupadi Murmu, who is chancellor of universities, kept her speech simple. “Ours is a country of youths and the country has a lot of expectations from them,” she said in her convocation address and reminded the degree holders to channel their creative energy for the benefit of the country.

In all, 106 departmental toppers and the best graduates won medals. But among them 87, including 59 girls, received their medals at the convocation held at Dikshant Mandap on the university’s Morabadi campus from governor Murmu and vice chancellor Pandey.

Jiji George flaunts her gold medals. (Manob Chowdhary)

Jiji George, one of toppers who cleared her post-graduation in geography in 2018, got three gold medals — Dr Ayodhya Prasad gold medal for becoming the best master in geography, LPN Shah Deo gold medal for the best master in social sciences and a gold medal for being the MA topper in geography.

Asked about her future plans, she said, “I’m now preparing for further studies, including an MTech in remote sensing that I had as a special paper.”

Others who got gold medals were Sana Usmani, the topper in political science, Gopal Krishna Dubey (Sanskrit) and Alok Ghosh (journalism and mass communication), all from the 2017 post-graduation batch.

From the 2018 batch, Abhijeet Munda, Mitali Mehta and Mousumi Dey, who topped in anthropology, botany and chemistry, bagged gold medals.

This time, Ranchi University ditched the colonial era black robes and square caps with students wearing Indian traditional outfits for the convocation.

Girls wore white sarees with red border and red blouse or white salwar kurtas with red dupatta, while boys were clad in white dhoti-kurta or white pyjama-kurta. Even the dignitaries wore maroon, yellow or pink headgear, depending on their rank.