An open letter to PU VC by Senator

Amarjot Kaur

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, April 19

For 19 Senators, who had requested the Syndicate to propose a date for a special senate meeting where the issue of reappointing principals beyond the age of 60 was to be addressed, the April 10 judgement spelled disappointment.

However, the Syndicate gave a nod to a special Senate meeting on April 21 for two other agendas — awarding Infosys Trustee Sudha Murthy with Honoris Causa Degree (Doctor of Letters) and Vigyan Rattan to ISRO Chairman K Sivan, Secretary, Department of  Space, at the university’s 68th convocation.

On Thursday, Professor, Senator (Fellow) Chaman Lal penned a letter to the VC.

Excerpts from the letter:

Dear Vice-Chancellor, Registrar and fellow Senators,

... While now I understand that due to certain provisions of the university Calendar, approval of the two third of Syndicate members and Senate members is a statutory requirement for awarding an Honoris Causa degree... I fail to understand why the April 29 meeting has been postponed indefinitely rather than it being preponed to April 21! 

I still suggest that the agenda of April 21 meeting of the Senate should be expanded and items, at least some of these, of now-postponed meeting may be made part of the April 21 meeting. Transparency needs to be observed while considering people to be given the Honoris Causa degree. If the VC has to recommend the names, and if he seeks opinion of certain people for recommending the award, the names of those persons should be shared with the Syndicate and Senate... I don’t know whether the VC has sought the opinion of experts in the field of literature... No literary critic of Kannada and English, both languages she (Sudha Murthy) writes in, consider her a writer of any high literary quality, she has received no awards such as Sahitya Akademi or Gyanpeeth awards, which were received by Amrita Pritam and Gurdial Singh, when they were awarded the Honoris Causa degrees...

With best regards, Chaman Lal 

A panel was formed and it was decided that Murthy would be awarded Honoris Causa degree. We give this degree to those who are not from the field of science or law. — Karamjeet Singh, PU registrar