Dhankar: Pained to leave CU event under duress

Kolkata: A day after being driven out of the Calcutta University annual convocation without conferring D.Litt on Nobel Laureate Abhijit Vinayak Banerjee, West Bengal governor Jagdeep Dhankhar has cautioned the Mamata Banerjee government that he would not play the role of Emperor Nero when Rome was burning.

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

The ruling party, however, sided with the students, 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,”  Mr Dhankhar said at a press meet in Raj Bhavan.

“The people have to give it a thought when a small group of persons creates a problem and it is still not booked under the law. I can not be a Nero and play the fiddle when Rome is burning,” he added. He observed, “Yesterday’s chain of events, which did not happen spontaneously, marred the finest moments in the recent times in the state. One hundred sixty three years’ tradition was broken, when the Chancellor was forced by unruly mob or a group of interested persons/students, to leave the venue without awarding the degree, for which the convocation had been convened.”

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.