JNU’S 2nd convocation after a gap of 45 years likely to get postponed
NEWDELHI: The Jawaharlal Nehru University’s second convocation, which was to be held either in the last week of February or the first week of March after a gap of 45 years, is likely to get postponed.
The first convocation was held in 1972, where noted actor and theatre personality, Balraj Sahni, had delivered the convocation address.
A second convocation never happened because at the first convocation, student union president, Student Federation of India’s VC Koshy, allegedly delivered a speech about the “bourgeoisie-landlord-government,” stirring up the hornet’s nest in the media, according to Kamal Mitra Chenoy, a professor at the Centre for Comparative Politics and Political Theory, who had joined JNU as part of the first batch of MA students in 1972.
Now the second convocation has been postponed and a date is yet to be fixed, according to members of the steering committee.
Though university has been witnessing some upheaval and pushback from the students and a section of teachers after the uni- versity mandated an attendance policy, the committee members said that this was not the reason for the delay. “It has nothing to do with that. We are just waiting for the chief guest to confirm their availability and give us the dates,” said a committee member — a claim corroborated by three other members of the committee.
The members did not confirm who the chief guest would be, but sources said that it is likely to be a central government minister.
If so, history is likely to repeat itself, with the students’ union president saying that they “would not allow it to hap- pen smoothly.”
“Only those who are pro-administration will take their degrees from them. Most others would likely boycott it. The administration will be left embarrassed. We haven’t discussed our plan of action yet, because we have not received any official communication on this yet; but we will not just let it go,” she said.
SC Garkoti, the rector-ii and the chairperson of the steering committee responsible for the “smooth and successful conduct” of the event, did not respond to Hindustan Times’ attempts to contact him.