Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) held its second convocation after 46 years on Wednesday. The event, however, did not run as smoothly as the organisers would expect., with one student even refusing to shake hands with the Vice-Chancellor.
The first and only convocation ceremony at the prestigious university was held way back in 1972 and was marred by controversies after the then students' union president delivered a controversial speech. And now, 46 years after the fiasco, a student refused to shake hands with Vice-Chancellor M. Jagadesh Kumar at the ceremony.
The student, Anoop Patel, said that his protest was due to "role in negating the idea of the varsity being an inclusive campus". He did a comparative study on India's Reservation Policy and South Africa's Affirmative Action for his doctorate.
"The way the image of JNU has gone down, the VC has a huge role to play in it. The decisions, policies which are enacted by the Vice-Chancellor are against the inclusive, democratic, progressive and secular credentials of our JNU," said Patel.
He also claimed that when he refused to shake hands with the VC, JNU Chancellor V K Saraswat, who was the chief guest at the convocation, said "I hope you will shake hands with me", to which he politely replied, "I will definitely shake hands with you."
Recalling the first convocation of the university held in 1972 that was graced by the noted actor and theatre personality Balraj Sahni as a chief guest, professor Kamal Mitra Chenoy said the actor had made a Left-liberal speech and talked about Lenin during the ceremony.
The veteran actor had famously said, according to a report by NDTV, "It is my earnest hope and prayer that you, graduates of Jawaharlal Nehru University may succeed where I and so many others of my generation have failed."
"In 1972, our VC was G Parthasarthi, who was a famous diplomat and was close to Nehru. Given the university's radicalism, the VC thought he would as Balraj Sahni to speak, as Sahni was pro-Left. However, following Sahni, the students' union president VC Koshy also gave a speech which was controversial in nature, after which the ceremony was discontinued," said Chenoy who was a student at that time, the PTI has reported.
The event was conducted at the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) auditorium located near the university campus, where more than 400 research scholars were handed out the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (PhD).
The JNU Students' Union had appealed to the JNU community to boycott the convocation. There were also reports of fewer students attending the event, with several seats in the auditorium being left vacant.
