West Bengal Governer Jagdeep Dhankar on Tuesday (28 January) could not attend the annual convocation ceremony of Calcutta University (CU) after Left-leaning students led by Students’ Federation of India (SFI) heckled him by showing black flags and shouting slogans, reported The Hindu.

The Governor, who is also the Chancellor of all state-run varsities including CU, had been invited to confer the academic D Litt degree to India-born Nobel laureate Abhijit Binayak Banerjee.

The students; who were protesting against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), National Register of Citizens (NRC), and National Population Register (NPR); also showed placards reading “No CAA, no NRC, no NPR” and shouted slogans “go back Governor”.

Accusing that the Governor was acting as an agent of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the students remained adamant on their demand that for the ceremony to begin the Governor must leave the venue.

Urging the students to let the convocation ceremony commence, Vice Chancellor (VC) Sonali Chakravarty Bondhopadhyay said, “Abhijit Binayak Banerjee has come from a long distance to receive the university’s D. Litt today. If you calm down then only we can honour him, otherwise it is not possible for me to conduct the programme.”

However, the students continued their disruptions in the process of commencement of the ceremony and did not let the Governor reach the stage. Governor Dhankar, at the end, left the venue. The VC, later, gave away the honorary D Litt degree to economist Abhijit Banerjee.

Banerjee, addressing the gathering after receiving the honour, said, “What is happening here (at the convocation) is little bit hard for me to comprehend.”