Bengal governor and Jadavpur University chancellor Jagdeep Dhankhar faced protests, “go back” slogans and uncomfortable questions about Citizenship (Amendment) Act and NRC from students on Monday as he went there to chair JU’s court meeting.
The special court meeting was convened on Monday to decide on the modalities of the annual convocation.
As Dhankhar could not make it to the court meeting, the JU authorities held the meeting without him and decided to go ahead with Tuesday’s convocation.
A university official said that the annual convocation would start at 11am. This is the first time that the university will not hold any special convocation, in which the chancellor awards the honorary DLitt and DSc degrees, said the official.
Students said they were protesting the governor’s stand supporting the citizenship act that is facing protests on campuses across the country.
Dhankhar had gone to the university at 2pm, when the court meeting was supposed to start. As his car headed towards Aurobindo Bhavan, the venue of the court meeting, students and a section of employees owing allegiance to Trinamul blocked the vehicle. They waved black flags at him and thumped the car’s bonnet.
The employees chanted: “Apni Rajyapal, na Padmopal (Are you a governor or a representative of lotus?)” Lotus is the BJP’s poll symbol.
As the Dhankhar’s guards could not find a way out of the impasse, they decided to escort the car out through gate number 1, which opens into Jadavpur Station Road.
It was then that the students intervened and informed the chancellor that they could make way for him, but he had to go through their peaceful protest. The chancellor’s car then proceeded to Aurobindo Bhavan at 2.30pm.
“We were protesting against the CAA and NRC and the governor’s supported those. But at no point did we stop him from entering Aurobindo Bhavan,” said Abheek Das, the general secretary of the Faculty of Engineering and Technology Students Union.
As some employees blocked his way to the meeting, he entered the adjacent office of the employees’ welfare unit and sat on a chair surrounded by the VC, two pro-VCs, registrar and the court members. After waiting for 20 minutes, he called in the members of the protesting students to take questions from them.
Question arose that since the chancellor did not attend the court meeting, could the university go ahead with the convocation.
Responding to the poser, VC Suranjan Das said: “We are holding the convocation in accordance with what has been stated in the university’s act and statute. We are bound to give degree certificates to graduating students, who have completed the course in due time.”
Could the chancellor attend the annual convocation? “He was free to come,” said Das.
“After the meeting started, the chancellor directed the VC over the phone not to pass any resolution and instead hold the meeting at Raj Bhavan in the evening. But the members present in the meeting decided to continue with it,” said one official.