VK Shrivastava may have resigned from the post of Vice-Chancellor of MS University earlier in January, pending a petition before the Gujarat High Court challenging his February 2022 appointment to the post, but controversies pertaining to him refuse to die down. The petitioner of the HC PIL, Professor Satish Pathak, on Thursday, raised questions over the alleged delay in Shrivastava vacating the Dhanvantri Bungalow — the official residence of the Vice-Chancellor– as well as his presence in official WhatsApp groups of the University.
Pathak, who also expressed a view that Shrivastava’s pictures should be removed from various faculties, said, “We can still consider that he is not vacating the bungalow until he finds another place to stay but what is stopping him from voluntarily exiting the WhatsApp groups? It should have been the first ideal action on his part. What’s even more surprising is that even after his resignation the administrators of the WhatsApp groups are fearful and unable to remove him from the group.” On January 28, the Gujarat HC will hear the arguments over the question of whether Shrivastava can be permitted to use the period of his appointment as V-C for his future applications.
Guests of Honour
The 73rd annual convocation of Gujarat University witnessed several firsts. Towards the end of the convocation, the university, which already has a logo and anthem of its own, launched its flag. Also, in addition to the chief guest, former Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu, Governor Acharya Devvrat, who is also the university’s chancellor, and Education Minister Rushikesh Patel, a few others dignitaries were invited to the stage to award degrees to the students. These included many of those seated in the first rows of the auditorium of Atal-Kalam building, including BJP MLA Kaushik Jain of Dariyapur Legislative Assembly in Ahmedabad, Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIMA) Director Prof Bharat Bhasker and Jawaharlal Nehru University Vice-Chancellor Shantishree Pandit who were invited to the stage by University Registrar P M Patel and Vice Chancellor Neerja A Gupta to award the degrees. Further, several school students were also invited to the convocation to seek “inspiration”.