Ignorance at the Helm

Ignorance at the Helm!

Karnataka Minister for Higher Education Sri Basavaraj Rayareddy said today that the School of Economics modelled after London School of Economics will be started from the next academic year in the 50 acre Bangalore University Campus at Jnanabharati and would be named after Babasaheb Ambedkar( Ambedkar School of Economics). So far so good. Naming after Ambedkar is most welcome too. However, he further stated that Ambedkar was the only Indian who has studied in London School Of Economics so far and hence it will be named after him! This is untrue. Politician as Minister for Higher Education is not expected to know such things. Nor is he expected to tell the untruth. Our own late Dr. K Venakatagiri Gowda, former Professor of Economics, Bangalore University had studied in London School of Economics and obtained his Ph.D from there. So is K N Raj. Urjit Patel, RBI Governor, Kaushik Basu, Senior Vice President and Senior Economist, World Bank, Rajiv Shah have all studied and obtained degrees from London School of Economics. Among the Public/Political figures, V K Krishna Menon, Jyoti Basu, K R Narayanan, Lord Meghnand Desai are all alumni of London School of Economics. I am sure, if I ask my friends in academia, especially the professors in Economics, would reel out umpteen number of names from the academic field who have studied in London School of Economics.