West Bengal Governor faces students’ ire, leaves convocation

Kolkata, January 28

West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar was on Tuesday prevented by a section of students from attending the Calcutta University’s annual convocation at Nazrul Mancha here, following which he left the premises.

Dhankhar, who is also the chancellor of the university, said, “Those that compromised culture and decorum need to be in a reflective mode.”

Shortly after the Governor arrived at the venue around 12.30 pm, the students, with “No CAA” and “No NRC” posters in hand, waved black flags at him and raised “go back” slogans. Dhankhar headed straight towards the Nazrul Mancha green room, where he met Nobel Laureate Abhijit Banerjee, who was on Tuesday conferred honorary D Litt (honoris causa) by the university.

Minutes before the programme started, however, another group of students took to the stage and raised slogans against the Governor, this time prompting him to leave the venue around 1.30 pm.

The protesters claimed that Dhankhar was “the (BJP- led) Centre’s representative, who doesn’t deserve to be on the dais for CU’s convocation ceremony”. — PTI