The decks were cleared on Wednesday for the establishment of the Sitaram Jindal School of Economics in Bangalore University (BU) amidst protests by student activists against ‘the entry of a private institution into a State-run campus’. The varsity’s Syndicate, at a special meeting convened to pass the proposal, claimed to have given its approval “unanimously”. The announcement was made soon after high drama ensued outside the venue of the meeting with activists of the Students’ Federation of India being taken into preventive custody when they tried to barge in to register their protest.
Allaying their fears, BU Vice-Chancellor B. Thimme Gowda said no land will be given to Sitaram Jindal Foundation (SJF) “at any cost”, unlike the previous proposal during the tenure of N. Prabhu Dev. Back then, the same project had run into rough weather and was ultimately shelved. “At that time, they wanted to get a society registered and hand over land to them. Under our new proposal, they will be donating infrastructure to the school, constructing buildings on a location we will choose. Running the school will entirely be BU’s responsibility. They will only have one member in the advisory board and the board of studies,” Prof. Gowda said.
In fact, there is no provision to give land to a private party in the vast Jnanabharathi campus, said Syndicate member N. Appaji Gowda.
Prof. Gowda also added that no memorandum of understanding (MoU) had been signed between the two parties yet, though controversies surrounding the proposal had forced the SJF to threaten to back out, as other varsities are interested. “The government needs to approve the proposal, only after which the MoU will be signed,” he added.
