Students, past and present in Jawaharlal Nehru University have often wondered why there is no convocation to give them their degrees and this question was answered at Sunday’s big event, “Life beyond JNUSU,” in which present and past students’ union presidents of the University held day-long discussions.
“Those days, in the early 1970’s, a convocation was usually used by many students to protest against the education policies. They would burn their degrees, boycott the function and many other things,” said Professor Anand Kumar, global studies programme coordinator at JNU, to a captivated audience.
“Well, on that fateful year we were of the opinion that it was a time to introspect and not glamourise any minister who was invited to such events. The V-C assured us that no minister and no guest would be invited, but then it came about that the guest of honour was actor Balraj Sahni. All of us told the V-C that if the guest of honour was to make the speech, then the students’ union president was also entitled to speak.”
After negotiations, they agreed that the presidents’ speech will have to be approved by the dean of students and so it was. “In the dead of the night, we changed the speech, very revolutionary and colourful was the speech, that a complete ban on convocation followed and it has still not been re-introduced,” said Prof. Kumar, adding that he personally wished that the convocation might come about again.
“Some rituals are necessary,” he added.