Kurukshetra varsity prize-split row: Scheduled Castes panel seeks discrimination report

Nitish Sharma After remaining one of the agendas in the monthly meetings of the District Public Relations and Grievance Redressal Committee, the matter of splitting the prize money of a Gita Insights Challenge, has now reached the National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC). The panel has sought the report on the action taken from Kurukshetra University (KU) Vice-Chancellor regarding an alleged caste-based discrimination with a former student of the university. However, the university said no student was discriminated against and the challenge was conducted impartially. n What is the issue all about? Anil Kumar, a former student of Kurukshetra University, had claimed that he had participated in ‘The Gita Insights Challenge’ as part of the ninth International Gita Conference on the theme ‘Shrimad Bhagavad Gita and sustainable ecosystem’, organised by the KU in collaboration with the Kurukshetra Development Board (KDB) in November last year. The students had prepared videos related to the influence of the Gita. He claimed that he had spent over Rs 30,000 to prepare the video as the first prize of the challenge was Rs 1 lakh, but later the money was divided among three joint winners, and Anil got Rs 33,334 only, leading to a series of complaints. n What happened at the grievance redressal committee meeting? At the meetings of the District Public Relations and Grievance Redressal Committee, Minister of State for Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs Rajesh Nagar had directed officials of the KDB and KU to release the full prize money, in response, the KDB had sought more budget from the Urban Local Bodies. Meanwhile, the already allocated budget for the prizes was distributed. Following the delay, the minister announced that he would give the balance amount of Rs 67,000 from his discretionary grant, which was sanctioned recently. n Why was the notice issued by the NCSC? In his complaint to the NCSC, the former KU student stated that despite having maximum views on his content, the prize money was divided as he belonged to the Scheduled Caste, while the other winners belonged to the upper caste, following which in the notice on August 22 to the VC, the commission stated that it was decided that the matter be investigated. The VC has been requested to submit facts on the action taken on the matter in 15 days. n What does the university say? The Director of Public Relations of the university said the competition was conducted in an impartial manner with no discrimination with any participant by the judges or any official. No other participant has made any allegations of caste discrimination. The reply to the commission will be given in due course of time. Another official said that the purpose of the event was to spread awareness about the Gita among the youth. For the purpose, the prizes were bracketed among the winners. The former student had made no reference to caste discrimination in his complaint to the grievance redressal committee. The present complaint had been made after nine months.