Kolkata: World Cup-winning women's cricket team captain Harmanpreet Kaur, whom Jadavpur University planned to confer DLitt (Honoris Causa) during their convocation on Dec 24, will not be able to attend the event. The BCCI refused to grant her permission to attend the special convocation to accept the honour.
VC Chiranjib Bhattacharjee said on Monday, "Harmanpreet was interested. But BCCI did not grant permission. Hence, she will not be able to attend the convocation and receive the honour." With this, the university's plans to hold a special convocation stand cancelled.
The announcement comes as a major damper to the university students who were eager to greet Harmanpreet, who played a stellar role in India's World Cup victory. JU authorities had earlier said that they would hold a special convocation only if Harmanpreet attended the event. Otherwise, the annual convocation would be held as usual.
JU held an emergency executive council (EC) meeting online on Monday to approve AICTE chairman T G Sitharam as the chief guest of the annual convocation, but the meeting was inconclusive. State govt nominee to EC Manojit Mandal said, "The tenure of the acting registrar ended on Nov 30. Without a registrar, EC meetings cannot be held."