VP Dhankar to retire in August 2027
Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar, speaking at Jawaharlal Nehru University on Thursday, remarked in a light-hearted tone that he would retire in August 2027, “subject to divine intervention.” Dhankhar’s five-year term ends on August 10, 2027. A former West Bengal Governor and senior lawyer, he was elected Vice President as the BJP-led NDA candidate. In his address, he emphasised that India’s global rise must be matched by intellectual and cultural resurgence. He criticised the dismissal of indigenous knowledge as primitive and the post-independence reliance on Western frameworks, calling it an “architecture of erasure and decimation.”
Varsity question paper creates row
A fresh controversy erupted in West Bengal after a Vidyasagar University question paper referred to revolutionary freedom fighters as terrorists, sparking outrage. The Class VI History exam asked students to name three British district magistrates killed by terrorists in 1930s Midnapore-once a hub of the armed freedom movement. The university issued an apology and disciplinary action followed, but Opposition parties, including the BJP and CPI(M), demanded staff suspension and a public apology from Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. The incident follows CM Banerjee’s letter to NITI Aayog criticising a map that misrepresented Bengal as Bihar, calling it a grave lapse. She also condemned the harassment of Bengali-speaking citizens wrongly detained as illegal migrants, citing the case of Uttam Kumar Brajabasi from Cooch Behar. Accusing the Centre of targeting Bengalis, Banerjee questioned, “Is it a crime to speak Bengali?” The issues have further intensified the State-Centre political rift.