On eve of convocation ceremony, Bengal Guv removes JU’s interim VC

Kolkata: West Bengal Governor C.V. Ananda Bose on Saturday removed Buddhadeb Sau as the interim vice-chancellor of Kolkata’s Jadavpur University (JU).

The development came on the eve of the convocation ceremony of JU on Sunday, creating uncertainty over the event at the last moment.

The Governor, by virtue of being the chancellor of all state universities, had appointed Sau as the interim vice-chancellor in August this year after the tragic ragging related death of a fresher at the boys’ hostel of the university.

Before Sau’s appointment, JU was running headless without a permanent vice-chancellor for a long time.

Although Sau himself refused to make any comment on his removal from the chair, JU insiders claimed that he went into the bad books of the Governor by announcing the date of the convocation after holding a meeting with Education Minister Bratya Basu, bypassing the office of the Governor as the chancellor of all state universities.

“Traditionally, the convocation ceremony of JU is organised on December 24 every year. But now it seems that this year there will be a breach in the tradition, since the question is, in absence of a vice-chancellor, permanent or interim, who will be presiding over the event,” a JU insider pointed out.