Varsity gets it from Left and Right over move to confer D Litt on Mamata

KOLKATA: Calcutta University (CU) decided to confer a D Litt on West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, a move that has triggered a barrage of criticism from the Opposition leaders on Wednesday.

Mamata’s pursuit of art and literature has often been a matter of controversy, but it seemed to catch her political opponents by surprise when word got around that the country’s oldest university decided to confer the honorary degree on her.

The state government-funded autonomous institution was criticised for ‘blatant display of loyalty’.

“It was decided during the senate-syndicate meeting today that a D Litt degree will be conferred upon her for her literary and social works,” vice-chancellor Sonali Chakraborty Bandopadhyay said.

“Today the CM recovered her prestige lost due to her false claims of being a doctorate from a non-existent university. This is also the day when West Bengal and Calcutta University lost its prestige. The event shows the extent of bootlicking and appeasement in the education system of the state,” said Lok Sabha MP and CPI(M) politburo member Md Salim.

The‘non-existent university’ refers to a decades-old controversy over Banerjee’s claim during the 1980s that she had obtained a PH.D from East Georgia University in the US, an institute which did not exist.

“I am not surprised. All the state universities in West Bengal, including Calcutta University, have become extended branch offices of Trinamool Congress,” said Abdul Mannan, Congress MLA and the leader of the opposition in the state Assembly.

BJP national secretary Rahul Sinha took a dig at the Calcutta University authorities for ‘stooping unimaginably low’.

“I hope that this D Litt degree will pave the path to delete Mamata Banerjee from the throne of power,” Sinha remarked.