JNU to hold third convocation to award alumni Nirmala Sitharaman, S Jaishankar

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman at Parliament. Express photo

The Jawaharlal Nehru University is set to hold its third convocation in August. During the executive council meeting held today, it was decided to award the Minister of Finance and former minister of defence Nirmala Sitharaman and Minister of External Affairs Subrahmanyam Jaishankar during the ceremony.

Both the union ministers are alumni of JNU. Sitharaman pursued MA from the School of Social Sciences (SSS) and MPhil from the School of International Studies at JNU. Jaishankar pursued MPhil and doctoral research at the School of International Studies from the Delhi-based varsity. He also specialised in nuclear diplomacy at JNU.

The two will be the first-ever recipients of the ‘Distinguished Alumni Award’ bestowed by the varsity.

Today the Executive Council of JNU decided to bestow the newly established Distinguished Alumni Award upon Smt. Nirmala Sitaraman and Shri. S. Jaishankar in the third convocation to be held in August 2019. They will be the first recipients of the Distinguished Alumni Award. pic.twitter.com/ElSuDTsh9m

— Mamidala Jagadesh Kumar (@mamidala90) June 12, 2019

JNU held its second convocation after 46 years in 2018 after the UGC asked the central varsities to hold the ceremonial ritual of conferring the degrees. The ritual is being carry-forwarded this year as well. The first convocation was held in 1972.

Last year, the JNU Students’ Union (JNUSU) had called for boycotting the varsity’s second convocation in protest against the alleged “systematic destruction of the campus” by the V-C. The union held a parallel event on the same day. Last year, NITI Aayog member and scientist V K Saraswat was the chief guest for the event.