Students protest at Tezpur University.
Credit: X/@kaushik_nsui
Guwahati: The ongoing protests by students and staffs of Tezpur University in Assam took a dramatic turn when a senior professor "assumed charge" of the acting Vice Chancellor on Thursday night while another professor refused to act as pro-VC named by the "absconding" VC.
Atmosphere at Tezpur University, a central University situated in North Assam's Sonitpur district, has remained tense for the past few months due to the protests against alleged mismanagement, corruption and absence of present Vice-Chancellor, Shambhu Nath Singh.
On November 29, the situation worsened when the students "shut down" the University for "indefinite period" demanding removal of the VC and an inquiry against him.
Singh has remained absent since September when protests intensified following his controversial statement over a programme to condole the death of iconic singer Zubeen Garg. Tezpur University was set up in 1994 as per the promises made in the historic Assam Accord signed to end the six-year-long anti-foreigners movement or the Assam Agitation (1979-1985).
On Thursday, amid the protests and "shutdown," Singh convened a meeting of the university's Governing Body, which the VC chaired online from New Delhi. The students said in the meeting, Singh named Joya Chakraborty, a professor of Mass Communication Department as a pro-Vice Chancellor. But Chakraborty, according to a student, refused to accept the decision. Amid all these on Thursday night, Dhruva Kumar Bhattacharyya, a senior professor of the computer science and engineering department, announced that he "assumed the charge" as acting VC as per provisions in the University Act.
Videos shared on social media showed the protesting students shouting in favour of Bhattacharyya.
In a letter, Bhattacharyya said he "assumed the charge" due to "the long absence of the Vice-Chancellor, non-functioning of the Office of the Vice-Chancellor and also in view of the current situation prevailing in the campus, to bring normalcy”.
The protest and tension in the University also drew political attention with Congress leader Gaurav Gogoi writing to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking his intervention. Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Wednesday also urged Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan to appoint a pro-Vice Chancellor, pending inquiry against the present VC Singh