Denial of a Doctorate to Anand Vishwanathan

.............by Sivapriya Krishnan

My blog has suffered a long hiatus with a callous indifference on my part for the last few days . Though there were many things I wanted to write about, there was a sense of dis-spirited weariness and maybe an inexplicable apathy towards penning down my thoughts, which I finally decided to shake off with this note.

Probably what I read this morning and what I have been reading for the last few days , have upset me , that finally my pen ( infact my keyboard !) took the better of me.

Anybody reading my blog would by now be wondering, what this preamble is all about.

I have been upset with the news of “denial of a Doctorate to Anand Vishwanathan”.

Over the last few days , this news has been flashed in the paper, with the grand finale today, listing a story saying that Anand has declined to accept it and Kapil Sibal “apologising” for the bureaucratic mess up !!!

Ours is a country which doles out Emeritus positions, Fellowships, Doctorates by the dozen, to one and all not withstanding the receivers' scholarship in that field of knowledge and study.

Why all this hullaballoo over this Doctorate and that too to a person like Anand?

Anand is one person, who has held his head high and steady and won laurels not only for himself but also for his country. He is undoubtedly the only Indian in the many years that have passed by to pitch India as a country worth its name in the game of Chess. He has demonstrated consistency and academic strength , stamina and passion towards this body of knowledge and proved himself time and again in his chosen profession, not only elevating himself, also elevating the game and his country. He is a worthy role model for many a young and upcoming champion like Adheepan (now a national level player) from Chennai, who are all modelling after this genius.

Politicians and ministers get it for nothing and worthy individuals are denied the same ; the reasons being quoted as “bureaucratic delay and disorder’?
What a shame and sham of the whole business of issuing a Doctorate, if it cannot be given gracefully to acknowledge the genius and consistent demonstration of the same?

I am waiting to live in a state when “meritocracy will rule over autocracy and bureaucracy” Is it too Utopian a dream?