Served JU paid price; left office with my head held high, says ex VC Bhaskar Gupta
Telegraph | 2 April 2025
Deposed Jadavpur University vice-chancellor Bhaskar Gupta retired as a JU professor on Monday and said his “unceremonious termination” by the Bengal governor days before his retirement was a price he had to pay for working in the interest of the university and its students.
“The governor (the ex-officio chancellor of state-aided universities) has accused me of holding an illegal annual convocation on December 24, 2024. There, hundreds of graduating students were awarded degree certificates. I had to pay a price for ensuring that the graduating students were not inconvenienced. If I had to pay a price for this, so be it. I have left my office with my head held high,” said Gupta.
“I have not been subservient to anyone. I have only served my university and my students following the law and my conscience,” he said.
Although the chancellor did not cite a reason for the sacking, Gupta and many on the campus believe it was because he went ahead with the convocation, ignoring the chancellor’s advice.
Governor C.V. Ananda Bose wrote to the then JU authorised VC on December 23 last year that the explanation Gupta gave for holding the convocation was “unacceptable”. Bose accused Gupta of scheduling the convocation hurriedly without following due procedure.
Gupta was removed from the position of authorised VC on March 27, four days before his retirement.
Several teachers and students have written to express their support, Gupta said on Monday.
“I value their gesture. My only concern is that JU, my alma mater, is in turmoil,” he said.
A professor of electronics and telecommunication engineering, Gupta went to the campus on Sunday to collect his pension papers from registrar Indrajit Banerjee.
In state-aided universities, a teacher retires at 65.
Gupta was authorised to act as JU VC in April 2024 by the chancellor in consultation with the state government.
The retired professor said the chancellor’s office told him once in December and then again on March 29 to bear the expenses incurred for the convocation.
“I had told the education department earlier why we had to hold the convocation and about the communication from the chancellor’s office. The West Bengal State Universities (Terms and Conditions of Service of the Vice-Chancellor & the Manner and Procedure of Official Communication) Rules, 2019, mandate that a VC has to write to the department if he or she intends to send any communication to the chancellor,” said Gupta.
The rules notified by the government and signed by Bose’s predecessor Jagdeep Dhankhar say: “All communications proposed to be made to the Chancellor by the Vice Chancellor of a State-aided University shall be addressed to the Secretary of the Department. Every communication proposed to be made by the Chancellor to any State-aided University shall be routed through the department.”
Gupta said: “I don’t know why the chancellor wrote to me straight away on Saturday without routing the same through the department.”
Calls and emails to the chancellor went unanswered.