The stand-off between the students of Pondicherry University, supported by a section of faculty members and the Vice-Chancellor reached a flashpoint on Wednesday with the university officials deciding to seek deployment of police all over the campus in the backdrop of the threat by the students that they would disrupt the Independence Day functions.
leaders of the agitating students who are on fast since the last five days had told The Pioneer that they would not allow Vice-Chancellor Chandra Krishnamurthy to hoist the national flag inside the campus on Independence Day. The students and Pondicherry University Teachers Association (PUTA) allege that Chandra Krishnamurthy had committed academic fraud by submitting false educational and academic qualifications to the search committee constituted by the Ministry of Human Resources in 2013 for selecting the Vice-Chancellor.
They pointed out that the Doctorate of literature (Honoris Causa) obtained by Krishnamuthy was awarded by the Open International University for Complimentary Medicine, Sri lanka which according to the faculty and students is a fake institution. They also charge that Krishnamurthy had plagiarised books authored by others and got them published in her name.