Former Bengaluru BK Indian pacer Venkatesh Prasad is also on the list. | Photo credit: K. MURALI KUMAR
BK Venkatesh Prasad Photo Credit: K. MURALI KUMAR
Notice of Dr. Manmohan Singh Bengaluru City University’s decision to confer honorary doctorates – Honoris Causa Degree – Doctor of Letters – on two politicians who are among six individuals to receive the honor has raised eyebrows.
Music Composer Arjun Janya | Photo credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
The list also includes India’s former Bengaluru BK pacer Venkatesh Prasad, who was recently elected president of the Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA), and music composer and filmmaker Arjun Janya.
The two politicians are Congress MLC K. Govindaraj, former political secretary to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, who was sacked in the wake of the stampede that killed 11 during the Royal Challengers Bengaluru celebrations on June 4, 2025, and BM Farooq, a Mangaluru-based industrialist identified with the Janata Dal (Secular). He was a tenured MLC from JD(S), elected in 2018.
The other two recipients are Mohan Alva, chairman of Alva’s Education Foundation, Moodbidri, and TK Narayanappa, educationist and chairman of the Padmashree Group of Institutions.
Alva’s Nudisiri, an annual literary and cultural gathering, had earlier been boycotted by several progressive writers.
It may be recalled that Higher Education Minister MC Sudhakar had recently written to Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot urging him to form an expert committee to frame guidelines for public universities in the state for awarding honorary doctorates.
“Recently, there have been concerns in the public domain and on the floor of the Legislative Assembly and Legislative Council of Karnataka regarding cases of several universities awarding honorary doctorates to the same individual and the absence of uniform criteria or limits for such awards,” the minister said in the letter.
Published – 03 Apr 2026 21:40 IST
