Did not accuse Siddaramaiah government of corruption, says Mallika S Ghanti

Ballari: Vice-Chancellor of Hampi Kannada University Mallika S Ghanti on Thursday denied she had accused the state government of corruption and claimed she had been misquoted by the media.

Saying she had great respect for CM Siddaramaiah, Ms Ghanti said she was very disappointed that a section of the media had twisted her statement to say that she needed to carry a suitcase full of money to Vidhana Soudha to get funds released for the university. “I never used the word Vidhana Soudha in my speech. Indeed the present government has released more funds for this university than any other,” the Vice Chancellor said in a press release. Ms Ghanti was quoted as saying at a seminar on the “Future of Hampi Kannada University” on Wednesday that politicians “used to send us back with suitcases full of cash in the past, but today the situation has changed so much that we are required to take suitcases full of cash with us when meeting them.”

But in her release she claimed she was only referring to the university’s founder Vice-Chancellor, Dr Chandrashekhar Kambar, who recently recalled that whenever he went to Bengaluru for administrative work, the ministers used to wait for him and ask their officers to carry his suitcases, which they would send back filled with cash.

“Kambar told us how politicians treated VCs with respect in the past using the suitcases full of cash as a metaphor for fullfilling the needs of the university. I used the suitcases metaphor to show how things have changed as today we have to carry our own suitcases full of papers when seeking the government’s assistance for the university,” she maintained, adding that her statement had been twisted by ‘vested interests’ for their own ends.