The students of Jadavpur University have not forgotten what their Chancellor and the state's Governor, Jagdeep Dhankhar, did last September, his constant interference in day to day matters of the university. The students will boycott Dhankhar on their convocation. They have refused to accept their degrees from him but will be present at the venue on December 24.
The Governor has been in a constant tussle with the Mamata Bannerjee government over the past few months — from being forced to attend university's internal meetings to his self-invitation to Mamata's puja, he has been everywhere people did not want him to be. "The Governor is just trying to come into the limelight. It is clear that he has been continuously playing the role of a devout propagandist of fascism and has been a broker of the BJP-RSS nexus. His tussle with the state government has only covered up more important issues that needed to be addressed," said Debraj Debnath, General Secretary of Arts Faculty Students Union (AFSU) of the university. "He has not once spoken about any academic interest of the university nor has he helped implement any constructive changes," he added. The students will submit a letter to the administration today and urge them to not call the Governor for the convocation this year. The Governor, who is also the Chancellor of the varsity is invited by default every year.
Talking about the ongoing protests across the country, Debraj said that the people of the country need to join the students soon to protest the government's "autocratic rule". "Students alone can take a protest only so far. People need to join us in huge numbers and for that, they need to understand why the government or the people in power do not want them to know the ground reality — markets are on fire, inflation has reached heights we could not have imagined but at the same time the farmers are not getting their due," said Debraj.
The students urged everyone to simultaneously boycott Dhankhar, "a supporter of a riot" in a democratic and non-violent way. They will hoist black flags and wear black badges and raise slogans about CAA, NRC, NPR and "all the fascists supporting it, against the state terror that is going on all over the country, against the Jagdeep Dhanakhars".
