There is always a first time for everything, said Bangalore University (BU) Vice-Chancellor N. Prabhu Dev, referring to the two-hour chaos that was witnessed at the meeting of the varsity’s Academic Council. Apart from the Syndicate members who were part of the meeting, a large group of “students” barged into the meeting hall on Wednesday, disrupting the proceedings.
The group, which claimed to be of Ph.D. scholars, hijacked the meeting, literally coercing the council into including their problems on the agenda. The agitated group forced the police personnel out of the hall. They then squatted inside the hall, cutting short council members’ request for maintaining decorum.
Their demand was to reduce the duration of coursework of Ph.D. from a year to six months and to remove statistics from the course, as most students were from the Arts stream and found it difficult. The VC finally had to assure them that an ordinance would be passed in a month.
Speaking to mediapersons later, Dr. Prabhu Dev said that the group also consisted of people who were not students.
That was not the end of the drama. As the council members trickled out of the hall after the meeting concluded, a few college representatives stopped council member H. Karan Kumar, who is heading a task force for B.Ed. colleges.
These people, reportedly from St. Francis B.Ed. College from where the task force had seized unauthorised answer scripts, and other B.Ed colleges, openly threatened him with dire consequences even in the presence of mediapersons. They said the committee had no right to seize college property without informing them.
Later, Mr. Karan Kumar said the four-member committee would seek police protection for inspections. He added that the interim report of all 102 B.Ed colleges would be ready by October 31, after which there would be a review period before admissions begin in December.
