AHMEDABAD: Senate members of the Vadodara-based Maharaja Sayajirao University (MSU) on Saturday expressed disappointment that Gujarat CM Bhupendra Patel and other senior BJP leaders failed to attend the Youth-20 Summit hosted by the educational institution as part of India’s G20 chairmanship.
Kapil Joshi, a member of the university senate, claimed that BJP leaders frequently do not attend functions due to their disagreement with the vice-chancellor.“The G-20 program is welcome. Our only objection is that we received the invitation just two days before the event. It was supposed to be attended by Bhupendra Patel, Minister of State for Home Harsh Sanghvi, minister Rishikesh Patel and MLAs from Vadodara city and district. However, only MLA Kayur Rokadia turned up. The university is being insulted by this,” he said.
“This is not the first time such a thing has happened. The Minister of Education was recently invited to a university event, but he failed to show up. I believe that some university administrators and senate members are against the vice-chancellor, which is why the ministers keep away. Why invite them if the guests are not willing to attend? Both the students and senators are being insulted by this,” Joshi said.
On his part, the university’s Vice Chancellor Vijay Srivastava claimed that the budget session in the state assembly prevented the Chief Minister and others from attending the event. According to a government press release, the day-long international conference was inaugurated by Keyur Rokadia, MLA of Vadodara.
“In this conference, the 167 delegates from G20 nations, 8 international scholars, 12 national scholars, 25 international delegates, 25 national delegates, 25 representatives of Youth Ministry, 50 start-ups working on environment, among others had participated,” it added.