Some students question the stir that forced convocation out of presidency campus

KOLKATA: Several Presidency University students on Tuesday questioned the rationale behind stopping vice chancellor Anuradha Lohia and other officials from entering the campus on Monday which prompted authorities to curtail the ceremony and shift it to Nandan depriving them of their degrees and robbing them of a moment they would have "cherished for a lifetime".
Some students who flew to Kolkata just to attend the convocation and receive their degrees were visually upset and wanted to know why the issue was not resolved through dialogue and escalated to a level which forced the authorities to shift the ceremony out of the campus at the last minute.
The divergent views emerged in a meeting of 80 odd students who were to receive their degrees at Tuesday's convocation to assess the popular mood before approaching the university authorities to organise a convocation on the campus and hand over the degrees to the students at the earliest. Close to 15 students said they were upset because they could not attend the convocation and receive their degrees.
"The vice chancellor made it clear on Monday morning itself when she was stopped at the gate that it would be difficult for her to hand over all the degrees because they were not signed. They were supposed to do several important things related to the convocation on Monday. There is no point asking now why we have not received our degrees," said Paramesh Das, a chemistry graduate who came from Kharagpur to attend the convocation.
Boarders protesting over delays in repair of Hindu Hostel with the help of some other students locked all the gates of the university on Monday morning and stopped the VC and other authorities from entering the campus. Pre-empting trouble during the convocation, the authorities shifted the ceremony to Nandan.
Riddhimoy Pathak flew down from Bengaluru on Saturday to attend the convocation. "I support the cause of Eden Hindu Hostel and feel for the students who have been staying on the campus amid so much hardship. But it is unacceptable that students who want to receive their degrees are deprived of it by a handful of protesting students. I was very sad to see some of my very senior professors standing in the sun on Monday because they were stopped at the gate," said Pathak who is now studying at Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research in Bengaluru where C.N.R Rao who was awarded the honoris causa degree also teaches. "I had a conversation with sir and told him I will be receiving my degree at the same convocation. But that has not happened. This has made me terribly upset."
VC Lohia visited the university in the afternoon and told the protesting students that they missed out on an opportunity to interact and learn from Bharat Ratna C.N.R. Rao.