Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed will not be attending the annual convocation ceremony of the Calcutta University (CU). Governor M.K. Narayanan, who is also the chancellor of the varsity, on Thursday said that the Bangladesh Prime Minister, who was to deliver the convocation speech as a chief guest, would be giving the programme a miss. “I do not think she is coming,” Mr Narayanan said in reply to a question on the sidelines of a programme organised by the Indian Museum.
It was also learnt that the governor and vice-chancellor of the varsity Suranjan Das had a talk over the matter, where the former gave the latter go ahead with the convocation ceremony (whose date will be decided later) without the chief guest. The CU had originally planned to hold the convocation in January 2012 and the varsity authorities had written to Ms Wajed, inviting her to be the chief guest. They would have finalised the date after receiving her confirmation. “However, despite primary acceptance of the invite, the PMO of Bangladesh did not get in touch with the varsity officials with further details,” CU sources said.
Ms Wajed’s decision to not attend the convocation in Kolkata is being seen as a snub to chief minister Mamata Banerjee for her move to block the Teesta water treaty. Ms Banerjee had refused to go to Dhaka with PM Manmohan Singh when the treaty was scheduled to be signed between the two countries.