Calcutta, Sept. 5: Education minister Partha Chatterjee on Saturday defended the paeans of praise for chief minister Mamata Banerjee from Anuradha Lohia and Sugata Marjit, vice-chancellors of Presidency and Calcutta universities respectively, at a Teachers' Day programme on Friday.

Asked whether the academic heads of autonomous institutions were right in showering praise on the chief minister, Chatterjee said on Saturday: " Tader-o swadhikar achhe (They too have the right)."

Some academics questioned whether the minister would have come up with a similar justification had the academics criticised the higher education system.

Lohia led the laurel brigade at Friday's programme. "It's not just our chief minister's dream... we all want Bengal to become the best education hub in the country. In the past three years, 13 universities and many new colleges have been set up. There has been a lot of progress in Bengal," said the Presidency vice-chancellor, who accompanied the chief minister on a trip to London and attended the 100th administrative meeting of the government.

Her comments did not go down well with her peers, who saw in them an attempt to please Banerjee.

The CU vice-chancellor was not far behind. Marjit lauded the government's decision to introduce Siksha Ratna awards for teachers. "We all want to be rewarded for our good work. Recognition of good work acts as a source of inspiration for teachers. It seems that no one had realised this before. But the chief minister has understood this," he said.

The same academics had maintained silence during the government's repeated attempts to scuttle the autonomy promised to universities.

No one raised a voice when the government passed the West Bengal State Council of Higher Education Bill empowering it to select students and determine eligibility criteria for admission to postgraduate courses or when it passed a bill in 2014 to ensure that every nominee to a search panel formed to pick a VC was a person of the government's choice.

None of the vice-chancellors on Friday spoke about the spurt in campus violence in the past few years, the latest instance being the firing at Raiganj University. The VC of Raiganj University, Anil Bhuimali, too was present on stage but remained silent.

Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi, who is also the chancellor of state universities, condemned the incident on Saturday. "Firing on any campus is unprecedented and deplorable. I have sought a report (on firing) from the VC," he said.