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Pained to leave CU convocation under duress, says Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar; TMC hits back


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KOLKATA: West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar on Wednesday said he was "totally shaken" after a "mob" forced him to leave the venue of the Calcutta University convocation, but none can stop him from discharging his duties as the constitutional head and chancellor of universities of the state.

Terming it as "black day" for both the university and the state, Dhankhar also took a dig at the Trinamool Congress government over security arrangements at the venue.

The ruling Trinamool Congress, however, sided with the students who demonstrated against Dhankhar on Tuesday, saying even Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose had led protests against a British professor during his student days.

"I'm in excruciating pain. I am totally shaken by the events that had taken place (at the CU convocation on Tuesday). It is a dark period," the governor told a press conference here.

Dhankhar was on Tuesday prevented by a section of students from attending the university's annual convocation, following which he left the premises.

The students, with 'No CAA' and 'No NRC' posters in hand, had waved black flags at him and raised 'go back' slogans.

"The events that took place yesterday didn't happen spontaneously. The chancellor was forced by an unruly mob to leave the venue, despite the chancellor being duly invited," he said at a press conference here.

Claiming that such an incident had never happened before, Dhankhar said those who compromise on the culture and glory of the state and university should reflect on the correctness of what they had done.

TMC secretary-general Partha Chatterjee hit back at the governor saying he has adopted a "confrontational stand" and was tarnishing his constitutional post by frequently comments against the state government.

Asked about Dhankhar's anguish about the student's protest, Chatterjee asked, "What does he think of the students? Can't they protest?" When Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose was a student of the then Presidency College, he had organised a protest against an English professor for supporting the racial discrimination policy of the British, the education minister said.

"The students' protest at the convocation was also against a policy," Chatterjee said.

On one hand Dhankhar "is inviting the CM to tea sessions and exchanging pleasantries with us, the very next moment he is casting aspersions on us in his tweets", he said.

"He is tweeting against us on a daily basis. Such a situation had never come up during the tenure of previous governors. We have no enmity against him at A personal level but he must realise this cannot go on forever," the minister said. Oon a personal note, he prefers to abolish the governor's post which has no real value, he said.

(THE NEW INDIAN EXPRESS)