Smiling faces marked the Jadavpur University convocation on Thursday in stark contrast to the students' protests that the annual event had witnessed last year.
Students queued up in the open-air theatre to take their medals from the chancellor, governor Keshari Nath Tripathi. Many of them touched his feet.
Last year, amid protests against the then vice-chancellor, Abhijit Chakrabarti, Bengali graduate Gitosri Sarkar had refused on the convocation dais to accept her "best all-round graduate" medal from chancellor Tripathi.
At JU, the chancellor only hands over medals to recipients. The VC and pro-VC give graduates their certificates.
Faced with students' protest, Chakrabarti had left the campus, delegating the responsibility of handing certificates to students to pro-VC Ashish Swarup Verma. In the second half of the 2014 convocation, 100 students had refused to accept their certificate from pro-VC as a mark of protest. The vast majority of the graduates, however, had taken their certificates and medals.
The protest had marred the mood of a ceremony that has traditionally been a celebration of academic performance.
"Over 3,500 graduates registered with us to collect their certificates. Barring a few, all of them attended the event. Those who could not, mostly had health problems or are not in Calcutta," said registrar Pradip Ghosh.
Asked about the differences between the two convocations, chancellor Tripathi told Metro: "You feel it. I know it. You also know it".
He added: "Forget what happened last year. The convocation has been very well organised this year. I must congratulate the vice-chancellor, the university officials and the students for this."
Vice-chancellor Suranjan Das spoke about how much he valued the students. "As a student of history, I believe that there is no point looking at the past. I believe that I have so far been able to convey the message that the vice-chancellor exists for students, teachers, researchers, officers and employees. I think this is why the convocation could be held smoothly," he said.
Within days of last year's convocation, Chakrabarti had resigned as vice-chancellor after chief minister Mamata Banerjee visited the campus.
