Summary:
Vadodara: MS University (MSU) went into a tizzy after a professor of Gujarati department did not accept felicitation on Independence Day and instead made allegations of double standards against the varsity officials.Professor Bharat Mehta was among the many teaching and non-teaching staff members of MSU to be felicitated by the vice-chancellor professor Parimal Vyas during the celebration of Independence Day for their achievements.However, after attending the flag hoisting ceremony Mehta decided to leave from there without accepting the felicitation.“The same vice-chancellor who was going to felicitate me had made a teacher, who is on probation, the head of the department,” said Mehta. But after 6 pm when I am at home, what political ideas I have should not be a problem to university,” he said.“We did not make him head because when we offered him to be coordinator of a UGC scheme he refused to be and if we are biased then why his candidature for felicitation was considered by us,” Vyas said.He added that he has asked clarification from dean of arts faculty how Mehta’s name was recommended for felicitation. He added that when he went to meet the vice-chancellor along with a member of Baroda University Teachers’ Association (BUTA) to raise the issue, Vyas told him that they will make necessary changes in the university’s handbook.The university’s handbook says that a permanent and confirmed teacher can only be made head of the university.Mehta also mentioned that many senior teachers from English department were also superseded to appoint a probationary teacher as head and similarly professor I I Pandya from Faculty of Technology and Engineering was also targeted.“I have been working in the university without any compromises and have done whatever work was assigned to me..