Honorary doctorates to politicians raises eyebrows

The announcement of Dr. Manmohan Singh Bengaluru City University that it would confer honorary doctorates- Honoris Causa Degree- Doctor of Letters- to two politicians, who are among six individuals to receive the honour, has raised eyebrows.

The list also includes former Indian pacer from Bengaluru B.K. Venkatesh Prasad, who has been recently elected as the president of 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 aftermath of the stampede that killed 11 persons during the celebrations of Royal Challengers Bengaluru on June 4, 2025, and B.M. Farooq, an industrialist from Mangaluru identified with the Janata Dal (Secular). He was an MLC from JD(S) for a term, elected in 2018.

The other two recipients are Mohan Alva, chairman, Alva’s Education Foundation, Moodbidri, and T.K. Narayanappa, educationist and chairman of Padmashree Group of Institutions.

Alva’s Nudisiri, an annual literary and cultural meet, has earlier been boycotted by several progressive writers.

It can be recalled that Minister for Higher Education M.C. Sudhakar had recently written to Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot urging him to form an expert committee to frame guidelines for public universities in the State to award honorary doctorates.

“Concerns have recently been raised in the public domain and on the floor of Karnataka Legislative Assembly and Legislative Council regarding instances where multiple universities have conferred honorary doctorates upon the same individual, and the absence of uniform criteria or limits governing such conferments,” the Minister said in the letter.