Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar faces “gherao” & “go back” slogans at Jadavpur University by students

West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar was “gheraoed” at Jadavpur University by the students as he went to the university this afternoon. Students showed him black flags and shouted “Go back” slogans at him, and the Governor sat in his vehicle for close to an hour.

The students – who had come out with posters against the implementation of Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the National Register of Citizens (NRC) said they wanted to discuss certain things with the Governor, who is also the university Chancellor, and refused to let him go into the VC’s office. However, after sitting inside his vehicle for approximately 45 minutes, Dhankhar stepped out of his vehicle and went into the office of the Vice Chancellor without talking to the students.

The students had called for a boycott of the convocation at the university if Dhankhar attended it. This led to the university’s executive council call an emergency meeting and decide that there won’t be any special convocation ceremony at University this year. The convocation however, has been scheduled as usual on December 24.

However, the Governor had reacted to this saying that this could not be done, and his visit to the university on Monday afternoon is regarding the legal aspects of the university’s decision, which he has opposed. Several student bodies had called for boycotting the convocation – scheduled on December 24 – if it is attended Dhankhar. The students’ bodies had submitted a memorandum on this to university Vice-Chancellor Suranjan Das on Friday.

On Saturday’s meeting, it was decided that the convocation will be held on the scheduled date, but only students will be awarded their degrees. The program of awarding honorary degrees to eminent persons won’t take place since the Governor won’t be attending it. Debraj Debnath, General Secretary of Arts Faculty Students Union had earlier said that the students would wear black badges to show their protest against the Governor at the ceremony.