Students to keep Pondy varsity VC out on I-Day

The students of the Central Government administered Pondicherry University will not allow Vice-Chancellor Chandra Krishnamurthy to hoist the national Tricolour in the university campus on Independence Day, according to student leaders who are on an indefinite fast for the last five days demanding her resignation.

“Krishnamurthy, the Vice-Chancellor, has become a persona non grata in the university. We want her to quit as Vice-Chancellor in the backdrop of the findings of the academic fraud committed by her. We won’t allow her to enter the university campus or hoist the national flag on this Independence Day,” Manish Mahapatra, one of the student leaders, told The Pioneer over telephone from Pondicherry.

The students are in the forefront demanding the ouster of Krishnamurthy whom they accuse of submitting fraudulent curriculum vitae to the search committee constituted by the then UPA Government in 2013 for selecting a new V-C. The Pondicherry University Teachers’ Association (PUTA) has come out with a booklet named “Alarming Academic Fraud” listing the “frauds” committed by Krishnamurthy. In a rare show of solidarity, the teachers’ association and students are agitating for the last three weeks demanding the dismissal of the V-C.

Prof Dastagiri Reddy, general secretary, PUTA, said claims by Krishnamurthy that she had authored three books had been found to be a “blatant lie”. “Her CV states she has authored three books. But she has only one book published by Himalaya Publishing House,” said Reddy.