THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: It is the duty of the society to foster natural talent, Kerala University Vice-Chancellor Dr A Jayakrishnan has said. He was addressing a function organised to honour prize-winning students of this year’s national inter-university sports meet and youth fests here on Saturday.
Today, talent is being destroyed instead of being nurtured, Jayakrishnan said, referring to the recent incident in West Bengal where a university professor was persecuted for forwarding a cartoon. Jayakrishnan said that the incident had reminded him of a cartoon of him drawn by a student named Sagar.
The cartoon has been framed and preserved in his home, Jayakrishnan said. University pro-vice chancellor Dr J Prabhash urged students not to restrict their creative instincts to art and sports, but use them to fight social evils.
Artists should also make their mark in activities for the benefit of the society, Prabhash said.
Medallists in various sports events conducted this year were felicitated on the occasion.
The university team ended up runners-up in the athletics meet held in Karnataka, and bagged 31 golds and eight silvers in the canoeing championships in Amritsar.
The university team won seven golds and eight silvers in the cycling championships in Punjab and bagged six golds and three silvers in the rowing championships held at the Madras University.
In the national inter-university youth fest, the Kerala University emerged runners-up for the first time. Gopika J, Parvathy R J, Greeshma Joseph and Prasanth received gold medals.
Team coaches were also honoured on the occasion.