ISSUE
Friday, August 22, 2025
Volume 16 . Issue 73
Bhopal: Known for his outspokenness that often stir controversies, Union Environment and Forest minister Jairam Ramesh has now targeted the convocation robes, terming them ‘medieval and barbaric relics’.
“I have still not been able to figure out why we stick to such barbaric colonial relics,” Jairam said Friday during the 7th convocation ceremony of the Indian Institute of Forest Management here, media reports on Saturday said.
Sweating profusely as he addressed the function, Ramesh finally took off the ceremonial robe draped on him.
“With the flowing robe and the hat, it's like being decked up like medieval vicars and Popes,” he said.
“This public demonstration in such weather is inappropriate. Why can't we have a convocation ceremony in simple clothes?” the minister asked, as he sat through the rest of the programme in his trademark white kurta-pyjamas.
Though his act drew applause from the students, the IIFM faculty and students remained attired in the convocation robes.
Ramesh criticised the tradition of the robes at a media briefing after the convocation ceremony.
“Convocation hai. Degree lijiye, ghar jaiye (It's a convocation ceremony. Get your degree and go home).”
“You can come to the convocation in shirts and trousers. Why the robe? The hat is worn only so that it can be thrown up in the air at the end of the ceremony. Why do you wear a hat if you have to throw it?”
Bhopal: Known for his outspokenness that often stir controversies, Union Environment and Forest minister Jairam Ramesh has now targeted the convocation robes, terming them ‘medieval and barbaric relics’. “I have still not been able to figure out why we stick to such barbaric colonial relics,”...
Bhopal: Known for his outspokenness that often stir controversies, Union Environment and Forest minister Jairam Ramesh has now targeted the convocation robes, terming them ‘medieval and barbaric relics’.
“I have still not been able to figure out why we stick to such barbaric colonial relics,” Jairam said Friday during the 7th convocation ceremony of the Indian Institute of Forest Management here, media reports on Saturday said.
Sweating profusely as he addressed the function, Ramesh finally took off the ceremonial robe draped on him.
“With the flowing robe and the hat, it's like being decked up like medieval vicars and Popes,” he said.
“This public demonstration in such weather is inappropriate. Why can't we have a convocation ceremony in simple clothes?” the minister asked, as he sat through the rest of the programme in his trademark white kurta-pyjamas.
Though his act drew applause from the students, the IIFM faculty and students remained attired in the convocation robes.
Ramesh criticised the tradition of the robes at a media briefing after the convocation ceremony.
“Convocation hai. Degree lijiye, ghar jaiye (It's a convocation ceremony. Get your degree and go home).”
“You can come to the convocation in shirts and trousers. Why the robe? The hat is worn only so that it can be thrown up in the air at the end of the ceremony. Why do you wear a hat if you have to throw it?”
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