Governor to miss BU convocation

BANGALORE: In what may be a major setback to Bangalore University, Governor and Chancellor H R Bharadwaj will give the varsity’s much-delayed 47th annual convocation — to be held on April 12 — a miss. According to sources, Bharadwaj left for Kerala on Wednesday morning, making himself unavailable for the convocation. The Governor, also Chancellor of state universities, is supposed to preside over the convocation. This is not the end to the controversies surrounding the convocation. Governor Bharadwaj is said to have rejected the list of people who were to be conferred with honorary doctorates. The list, sent to him by BU Vice-Chancellor Dr N Prabhu Dev, comprised personalities such as entrepreneur Ashok Kheny, renowned Ayurvedic physician P K Warrier, Dharmasthala Dharmadhikari Veerendra Heggade, former cricketer Brijesh Patel, actor Ambareesh, former UGC chairperson Prof  Yash Pal and Thontadarya Mutt seer Siddalinga Swami. “The reason the list was rejected was due to its procedural flaws. As per the rules, the bio-data of all the people in the list have to be collated and their profiles have to scrutinised by the university Syndicate. The Syndicate will then approve a final list that will be recommended to the Governor,” said B C Mylarappa, Registrar (Administration). In the 46th convocation, the university conferred honorary doctorates to noted Kannada poets M Chidananda Murthy, K S Nisar Ahmed and artist B K S Varma