Gulbarga varsity bestows doctorates on all and sundry

Universities doling out honorary doctorates has made them appear as if they are some kind of freebies for the ''deserving or the influential.''

Continuing the trend is Gulbarga University, which has chosen 10 people for honarary doctorates. And it’s not just the number that has left many dumbstruck. The list, which has a Karnataka Cabinet minister, the State police chief and a couple of seers, also includes a 20-something, local swami, whose credentials and contributions are not known to anybody except maybe the few who ensured his name figured in the list.

Incidentally, Governor H R Bhardwaj, who rejected a proposal to confer an honorary doctorate on historian M Chidanandamurthy, has okayed the list.  The chosen 10 will be bestowed the degrees at the 30th annual convocation on February 27.

The university, which honoured eight persons last year, has set a precedent of choosing politicans in power for conferring its honorary doctorates. Last year, Union Labour Minister Mallikarjun Kharge was conferred a doctorate, while this year, it will be the turn of Social Welfare Minister A Narayanaswamy. The courtesy is being extended to bureaucrats too, with the inclusion of Director General and Inspector General of Police Shankar Bidari in the list.

Now, one would think the University did not spare much thought while compiling the list. But not quite. Vice-Chancellor E T Puttaiah managed to ruffle some feathers by rejecting the name of former chief minister N Dharam Singh for the honour. Neither Singh nor any of his followers had made a proposal, but Singh’s name has been drawn into a controversy.

At the Syndicate meeting held on February 18 to finalise the names, R B Malipatil, a member, proposed the name of Dharam Singh, but Puttaiah rejected it saying Singh had not sent his biodata. This has created a furore with Singh’s followers asking if the university expected a veteran politician to send his biodata to confer an honour.

“How can a university expect a leader of the status of Dharam Singh, who has served the State for four decades and who was the second chief minister from the H-K region, to send his biodata. It is nothing but foolishness,’’ remarked Congress MLC Allamaprabhu Patil.

Activist S K Kantha, expressing shock and dismay over the indiscriminate conferring of honorary doctorates, has complained to the governor asking him to withhold the list. He pointed out that most personalities selected for the honour do not have any social standing of consequence. “More than merit, the honorary doctorates have been showered for extraneous considerations,”’ Kantha alleged.