Caught in a storm over his action in calling the police inside the campus of the Jadavpur University, Vice-Chancellor Abhijit Chakrabarti today said what had happened was 'unfortunate'. "It is unfortunate what has happened. Let good sense prevail among the students. Let them come for discussion. I hope all problems will be solved," Chakrabarti told a TV channel here amidst demands for his resignation by the agitating students.
Coming to his support, West Bengal Education Minister Partha Chatterjee said that there was no question of removing Chakrabarty from the Vice-Chancellor's post unless he himself so desired.
Appealing to the agitating students to return to their classes, the minister told reporters, "I hope good sense will prevail on them." The VC received moral support from the vice-chancellors of seven state universities when they expressed concern at the continued unrest in the university.
"We are deeply pained to notice that the students resorted to gherao till past midnight when things could have been sorted out through discussions," Ranjan Chakraborti, VC of Vidyasagar University, told a press conference in the presence of VCs of six other state universities. The other state universities whose VCs were present in the press conference are: Burdwan University, WBUT, North Bengal University, Kazi Nazrul University, Sidhu Kanu University and Kalyani University.
They were, however, non-committal on condemning the police action on the JU students on the intervening night of September 16 and 17, when asked by reporters. "You all have to understand under which circumstances the police were called in. Nobody has the right to gherao the VC and curb his fundamental right. What would have happened if something untoward had happened. The VC is aged and a noted academician," Ratan Lal Hangloo, VC of Kalyani University, said.
The students, who have continued to boycott classes despite the government instituting a five-member committee to probe the alleged sexual harassment of a girl student, have demanded resignation of the VC for calling the police inside the campus in the wee hours of September 17. On the intervening night of September 16 and 17, the students had gheraoed the university's VC, registrar and other members of the executive council demanding a fresh probe panel on alleged sexual harassment of a girl student.
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