Former Chief Justice of Karnataka High Court, Subhro Kamal Mukherjee, took charge as officiating vice-chancellor of Rabindra Bharati University (RBU) on Friday.
He reached the Jorasanko campus of the university around 11.40am and was received by registrar Subir Maitra.
Mukherjee garlanded a bust of Rabindranath Tagore and went around the rooms where the poet was born and breathed his last.
Then he left for the university’s Emerald Bower campus on BT Road, which houses the administrative and academic headquarters.
Mukherjee there held meetings with the university’s officials and learnt about the work that has been pending in the absence of a VC for a month.
“He took copies of the university’s act and statutes so he could go through them in detail,” said an RBU official.
Members of the RBU teachers’ association met Mukherjee later.
“We will again meet him next week because the undergraduate admission notification has been issued without any mention of the components of and guidelines forthe four-year programme. These decisions need to be approved by the faculty council and the executive council. Neither of the bodies could meet as there was no VC,” a teacher said.
RBU sources said Mukherjee sent his joining report to Raj Bhavan. The governor, who is ex-officio chancellor of state-aided universities, issued a notification on Thursday entrusting Mukherjee with performing the duty of VC at RBU.
Mukherjee took questions from journalists on the Jorasanko campus. Here are some of the questions and the officiating VC’s response.
Q: Some academics have questioned why a judge who has allegedly expressed “bigoted views” during his stint at Karnataka High Court has been entrusted with helming a university named after Rabindranath Tagore.
Mukherjee: Those who are protesting, let them lodge a protest with the chancellor. What is the point in telling this to me? Some might have spoken well about me. Some might have spoken ill about me. A person should be judged by what he does, not by what others say about him.
Q: Many are saying a university should be headed by someone who has an idea about the university system.
Mukherjee: Campus-related cases go to judges and the orders that the judges deliver are accepted. When you can depend on judges pertaining to campus-related cases, why can’t you depend on a judge to run a campus? When Abanindranath Tagore joined the art college, what administrative experience did he have? So these are not factors. If you have intent, you can work.
(Abanindranath Tagore was vice-principal of the Government College of Art and Craft in Kolkata from 1905 to 1915.)
Q: What would you take up immediately?
Mukherjee: There was no vice-chancellor at RBU for several days. Many files must be pending.
Q: What do you have to say about student politics?
Mukherjee: Students must study. They can always engage in politics. But there is no room for vandalism and gherao. Differences of opinion should not mean vandalism and gherao.