Engage in 'soul-searching', Bengal Guv urges JU obstructors

Kolkata: Asking all those who obstructed his "lawful" entry in Jadavpur University for two days in a row to engage in "soul-searching", West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar on Thursday said silence of the majority when a few hold system to ransom augurs ill for rule of law and democracy.

"Protest invaluable gift of democracy. It gets tainted the moment it graduates to intolerance and ceases to be peaceful. In the 150th birth anniversary of Gandhiji I urge all who obstructed my lawful entry to Jadavpur University for two days in a row to engage in soul searching," he said in a tweet.

Dhankhar ran into protests at the JU campus gate on Tuesday when he arrived to attend the convocation as a section of the non-teaching staff affiliated to the ruling Trinamool Congress showed hims black flags and blocked his car railing against his comments supporting the new citizenship law.

After waiting for around 90 minutes, Dhankhar left without attending the convocation.

On Monday too, a large number of JU students and staff had blocked Dhankhar's car and staged a black flag demonstration, besides raising "Go back" slogans against him when he arrived at the campus to attend the JU court meeting.

"Silence and inaction of the majority when a few hold system to ransom ill augurs for rule of law and democracy," Dhankhar said in another tweet on Thursday.

"Chancellor not allowed to discharge obligations and State Actors in passive mode is unwholesome spectacle. Urge Silent majority to speak out lest it is silenced," he said on his social media handle.