West Bengal government has reinstated Buddhadeb Sau as the interim vice-chancellor of Kolkata’s iconic Jadavpur University (JU) on Sunday less than 12 hours after he was removed by Governor C.V. Ananda Bose a day earlier.
Sau was removed on Saturday evening.
However, the state education department, which is otherwise against interim vice-chancellors appointed by the Governor in state universities, has its own logic behind reinstating Sau with special powers within hours of his removal.
The logic is that the sudden decision of the Governor to remove Sau as the interim vice-principal just an evening before JU’s convocation on Sunday afternoon posed an immense uncertainty for that traditional ceremony, since the vice chancellor, interim or permanent, will have to preside over that programme.
Meanwhile, the office of the Governor at Raj Bhavan in Kolkata has also not remained silent on the matter. It has issued a notification claiming that a probe will be conducted against Sau over the complaints against him.
It has also been said that in case donations have been accepted from the students to bear the cost of the convocation, the same amount will be deducted from the salaries of the interim vice chancellors and others responsible for it.
Incidentally, the certificates to be granted to the JU passouts on Sunday will have the signature of Sau, as the interim vice-chancellor. Since the Governor, by virtue of his parallel chair as the chancellor of all state universities, removed Sau from that chair on Saturday evening, in future the certificates issued to the passouts on Sunday might be replaced with fresh ones.
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.
According to JU insiders, Sau got into 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.
(The story has been published via a syndicated feed with a modified headline.)
