Karnataka's stars prefer deemed status, say Bangalore University will shrink their sporting chances.
Some of the brightest sports stars of India are caught in the battle for ‘deemed status’ between Union human resource ministry (HRD) and educational institutions.
Olympian swimmer Rehan Poncha, badminton player and Youth Commonwealth Games medallist Adithya Prakash and India U-19 cricketer Mayank Agarwal are worried that if they are forced to represent Bangalore University (BU) instead of Jain University, their room for pursuing sporting excellence would be shrunk drastically. The trio, currently, is with Jain University.
India’s most promising cricketer Manish Pandey, U-19 cricketer Karun Nayar, chess grand master Ashwin Jayaram, upcoming swimmers Gagan AP and Fariha Zaman are all students of the Jain University.
Jain is among the 44 educational institutes named across the country in a report for not being fit to retain the status of ‘deemed university’. The institute will come under Bangalore University if it is stripped off its ‘deemed status’ by the court.
World professional billiards champion Pankaj Advani and Karnataka Ranji team captain Robin Uthappa too wish to join Jain University for post-graduation courses but the tussle over ‘deemed status’ has left them uncertain.
Poncha, who is doing his MSc in psychology, is worried that going back to BU will upset the balance he has worked out between sport and education. He said BU has not been giving second chances to those who represent India and miss their semester exams.
“At Jain, I was told that separate exams would be conducted if we were to miss exams due to meets and India camps. Even BU used to speak of separate exams and grace marks for medallists but it never came through,” Poncha said.
“If we go back to BU then the two-year course I am doing will take me three-and-a-half years to complete. Then, why should I join BU?” Poncha asks.
Adithya Prakash, who had to skip his first semester BCom exams for Scottish Open badminton, put things in perspective: “At Jain, officials are aware of our schedule which is not the case with BU. The worst part is they (BU) don’t even know at what level we play,” said the 19-year-old trainee at Prakash Padukone Badminton Academy.
The University’s sports director UV Shankar made it clear on Thursday that no sportsperson’s career will be affected by the new ruling and the institution will continue to promote sports even under BU.
“There is no need for any sportsperson in Jain University to be worried. Even if the Supreme Court ruling goes against us, we will continue to support athletes in the same manner we have done in the past,” Shankar said.
He, however, added that the institute will not be able to help any sportsperson regarding exam dates. “We had approached BU to hold exams separately for Robin when he was away in West Indies for the World Cup but it never considered the request.
We are yet to hear from BU on swimmer Rohit Hawaldar’s plea of appearing for the fifth semester exams so that he could save a year,” added Shankar.
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