Bengal VCs boycott Governor's meeting

Vice-chancellors of 20 universities in West Bengal boycotted a meeting called by Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar and formed an association. The association, of which Jadavpur University (JU) VC Suranjan Das was appointed president, could be significant in the midst of a standoff between the state government and Dhankhar who faced protests and failed to attend the convocation at JU. On December 24, 2019, the Governor was forced to leave JU, while the university went ahead with the convocation. Following the incident, Dhankhar called the VCs at Raj Bhavan to discuss various issues, but no one turned up for the meeting. One of the VCs said there were legal difficulties in attending the meeting following the passage of a new law last year. Under the new rule, vice-chancellors cannot to attend a meeting without the consent of state higher education department.