<p>When Governor H R Bhardwaj, who is the Chancellor of the varsity, left the place after giving away gold medals and prizes to winners around 1.30 pm, Vice-Chancellor N Prabhu Dev followed to escort him. <br /><br />Moments later, Union Law Minister M Veerappa Moily too left the venue. Dev again had to escort him till the entrance of the Jnana Jyothi Auditorium in the Central College campus where the ceremony was held. <br /><br />Angry PhD awardees, who were yet to receive the certificates, raised a hue and cry when the V-C came back to hand over the degrees. <br /><br />As Registrar (Administration) R M Ranganath read out the names of awardees, one of them protested: “We should have been given the degrees by the Governor or the chief guest. It’s insulting to us that our hard work is not being properly recognised,” he said. <br /><br />He was soon joined by others, many of them middle-aged persons who were accompanied by family members. Suddenly, a few of them reached the dais and began arguing with BU officials who tried to pacify them. <br /><br />Expressing their inability to keep the dignitaries for a longer time, the officials told the students that the Governor left as he could not afford to stand for hours handing over degrees. <br /><br />The agitators, however, were not convinced. Then, Ranganath tried to calm them. When this also did not work, the Vice-Chancellor took the microphone.<br /><br /> “Please go back to your seats and wait. We will call you,” he appealed to them. <br />Meanwhile, police intervened and urged the awardees to move out from the dais. After a brief bout of annoyance, the agitators did make a retreat. <br /><br />Acharya skips function<br /><br />Minister for Higher Education V S Acharya gave the convocation a miss. Despite being the Pro-Chancellor of the university, Acharya did not turn up for the convocation.<br /><br />His absence was the topic of much debate. His staying away from the convocation is largely attributed to his differences with the Vice-Chancellor over bifurcation of the university. <br /><br />Ever since Acharya threw his weight behind splitting BU into two universities, he and the V-C have not been seeing eye to eye. <br /><br />While the Minister has skipped a couple of BU functions, the V-C too remained absent from a recent meeting of the Karnataka State Council for Higher Education.</p>
<p>When Governor H R Bhardwaj, who is the Chancellor of the varsity, left the place after giving away gold medals and prizes to winners around 1.30 pm, Vice-Chancellor N Prabhu Dev followed to escort him. <br /><br />Moments later, Union Law Minister M Veerappa Moily too left the venue. Dev again had to escort him till the entrance of the Jnana Jyothi Auditorium in the Central College campus where the ceremony was held. <br /><br />Angry PhD awardees, who were yet to receive the certificates, raised a hue and cry when the V-C came back to hand over the degrees. <br /><br />As Registrar (Administration) R M Ranganath read out the names of awardees, one of them protested: “We should have been given the degrees by the Governor or the chief guest. It’s insulting to us that our hard work is not being properly recognised,” he said. <br /><br />He was soon joined by others, many of them middle-aged persons who were accompanied by family members. Suddenly, a few of them reached the dais and began arguing with BU officials who tried to pacify them. <br /><br />Expressing their inability to keep the dignitaries for a longer time, the officials told the students that the Governor left as he could not afford to stand for hours handing over degrees. <br /><br />The agitators, however, were not convinced. Then, Ranganath tried to calm them. When this also did not work, the Vice-Chancellor took the microphone.<br /><br /> “Please go back to your seats and wait. We will call you,” he appealed to them. <br />Meanwhile, police intervened and urged the awardees to move out from the dais. After a brief bout of annoyance, the agitators did make a retreat. <br /><br />Acharya skips function<br /><br />Minister for Higher Education V S Acharya gave the convocation a miss. Despite being the Pro-Chancellor of the university, Acharya did not turn up for the convocation.<br /><br />His absence was the topic of much debate. His staying away from the convocation is largely attributed to his differences with the Vice-Chancellor over bifurcation of the university. <br /><br />Ever since Acharya threw his weight behind splitting BU into two universities, he and the V-C have not been seeing eye to eye. <br /><br />While the Minister has skipped a couple of BU functions, the V-C too remained absent from a recent meeting of the Karnataka State Council for Higher Education.</p>
