West Bengal Governor C V Ananda Bose faced protests by a section of students of Jadavpur University, of which he is the chancellor, on Saturday when he arrived to attend the university’s annual convocation.
The students were demanding that elections to the student union council of the University should be held immediately. Members of the SFI and Faculty of Engineering and Technology Students’ Union (FETSU) members waved placards and raised slogans as the Governor’s car was approaching the venue, for the 65th annual convocation of the University.
On Thursday afternoon, the students had protested in front of Vice-Chancellor Suranjan Das and blocked his vehicle. The protesting students said that the elections to the student union council had been held in the past three years.
After Mr Bose went inside, he sent word to the agitating students that he would like to meet them. He was later closeted with a delegation of the students for some time. Speaking to mediapersons later, Mr Bose said: “If there is a problem there can be ways to solve it. We will find the ways.”
FETSU president Aritra Majumder later told a news agency: “We have nothing against the governor. We only wanted to convey our long-standing demand to hold students’ union polls which the JU authorities are delaying for no reason.
We tried to intimate him about our democratic rights not being granted and he seemed to be sympathetic to our issue.” Mr Majumder said Mr Bose invited the students to the Raj Bhavan to discuss their demands in future if they are dissatisfied.
The governor also told them that he had taken over recently and is yet to get the full grasp of their problems. Jadavpur University Teachers Association office bearer Partha Pratim Biswas told said while the teachers’ body supported the demand of the students, they “do not endorse choosing a solemn occasion like the convocation for registering protests.”
Mr Bose in his address said he was happy to be in JU which occupies the fourth best spot among Indian universities. “I am proud to be at a place where 42 scientists have got international laurels for their research work.
I am happy to be at the annual convocation of the JU,” he said. Earlier, on Thursday, a section of students of Jadavpur University squatted before the car of vice-chancellor Suranjan Das, demanding that the campus elections be held immediately.
The protest on the JU campus erupted on a day the students of Calcutta Medical College and Hospital, who held a hunger strike for several days demanding elections to the student body of their institution, conducted the elections on their own.