Karnataka Minister appears in television advertisements, courts controversy

Karnataka’s Minister for Higher Education D H Shankarmurthy, who had kicked up a row by terming legendary ruler Tipu Sultan as “anti-Kannada” a few weeks ago, has now landed in a fresh controversy by appearing in a television advertisement.

The sight of D H Shankarmurthy endorsing the distance education programmes offered by Bangalore University in advertisements appearing on regional television channels has raised the hackles of Vice Chancellors of other Universities in Karnataka.

The Vice Chancellor of Karnataka’s oldest University - the University of Mysore - Prof J Shashidhar Prasad came out openly against the Higher Education Minister for promoting the distance education programmes of Bangalore University. “When there are other Universities also like the Mysore University offering distance education programme, how can the Higher Education Minister promote the programmes of only one University”, Prof Prasad questioned.

Seeking to remind Shankarmurthy that he was the pro-chancellor of all the Universities in Karnataka in his capacity as the Minister for Higher Education, Prof Prasad said it was highly improper on the part of Shankarmurthy to appear in advertisements promoting programmes of one particularly University.

Just like Bangalore University, Prof Prasad said Mysore University too had launched distance education programmes, which will commence from the coming academic year. Governor T N Chaturvedi, who is the chancellor of all the Universities in the State, had already given his approval for the distance programmes offered by Mysore University, he said.

Shankarmurthy, who had to apologize to douse the raging fire over his controversial comments against Tipu Sultan, is now finding himself at the centre of another controversy with Vice Chancellors of various Universities in Karnataka criticizing him for endorsing the distance education programme of just the Bangalore University.