The Election Commission, on Thursday, allowed Rajya Sabha member Rajeev Chandrasekhar to receive the honorary doctorate of science degree from the Visvesvaraya Technological University but prevented him from addressing the event, according to official sources of VTU.
Accordingly, Mr. Chandrasekhar received the honorary degree at the 12th annual convocation of VTU from Governor and Chancellor of the university H.R. Bhardwaj here on Friday.
However, Higher Education Minister and Pro-Chancellor of VTU C.T. Ravi did not attend the convocation function.
Deputy Commissioner Munish Moudgil on Tuesday wrote to the Registrar of Visvesvaraya Technological University against conferring an honorary degree on the Member of Parliament as it was election time and the model code of conduct was in force in the State.
He had also pointed out that Mr. Ravi could not attend the convocation as it was an official ceremony.
Mr. Moudgil had told The Hindu that he had written to the Registrar of VTU and the State Election Commission as there was a precedence wherein the Election Commission had advised Arun Shourie, then Union Minister for Disinvestment, Communications and Information Technology, not to attend the convocation event of Chhatrapati Shahuji Maharaj University, Kanpur, on March 4, 2004 as the model code was in force in Uttar Pradesh then. Mr. Shourie reportedly returned without attending the event.
