The last minute cancellation of the common entrance test for admissions to post-graduate courses (PGCET) in various universities of the state has come as another shocker to the student community, as the inexperienced ministers in the coalition government in Karnataka indulge in one bungling after another. The decision to hold a common entrance test for 11 post-graduate courses in eight universities across the state had been taken almost a year ago and considerable preparations had gone into it. Around 29,000 had paid the application fee of Rs 400 each through demand draft to the Mysore University which was scheduled to conduct the test next week. The Inter-University Board which decided on the modalities of the test had taken care of meeting the local needs by reserving 55 per cent of the seats for the students of respective universities, while earmarking 40 per cent for students of other universities in the state and only 5 per cent for outsiders. It was a fair enough decision and would have helped the merit students wherever they had studied, while doing justice to local students as well.
But, Higher Education Minister D H Shankaramurthy came under pressure in the legislative council to scrap the PGCET as several members insisted that the decision would hit the “poor” students and erode the autonomy of the universities. The argument was completely political and devoid of logic. But the minister did not receive support from the members of his own party, who also joined hands with the opposition. Mr Shankaramurthy, a first-time minister, should have stood his ground as a lot of deliberations and groundwork had gone into conducting the PGCET and it was a step in the right direction. Instead, he succumbed to the pressure and announced cancellation of the PGCET. 
Apart from the fact that the students have been put to a lot of inconvenience and harassment because of the government’s flip-flop on a major policy decision, it does not stand to reason that the students will now lose Rs 90 each in trying to get back the application fee they have already paid. The minister’s statement that such things happen in a democracy sounds pathetic. He should take the responsibility of convincing the banks not to penalise the students for cancellation of the demand drafts. Hopefully, the government will learn a lesson from this episode and ensure that at least in future the members on the treasury benches are briefed adequately in advance to support its initiatives rather than embarrassing it.