Kolkata: Legendary cricketer Sachin Tendulkar has refused to accept an honorary Doctorate of Literature that was to be conferred on him by Jadavpur University (JU) at their 63rd Annual Convocation on December 24.
Speaking to News18, university vice-chancellor Suranjan Das said Tendulkar in an email recently informed that he will not be able to accept it “due to Nitigoto (ethical) reasons.”
When Tendulkar was asked for a further explanation, he said he doesn’t accept an honour of this stature from any university, and had earlier turned down Oxford University as well.
“What Tendulkar actually meant was that since he hasn’t earned it, he feels that it would be morally wrong for him to accept the D. Lit,” said Das.
After the news of Sachin’s refusal reached Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi, who is also the Chancellor of JU, it was decided that the D. Lit would now be conferred on Indian Olympic boxer Mary Kom instead.
Mary Kom is a five-time World Amateur Boxing champion and has won gold medals at the 2014 Asian Games and the 2018 Commonwealth Games.
Besides Mary Kom, Hematologist and Director of Tata Medical Centre, Dr Mammen Chandy, eminent economist Kaushik Basu, banker Chandrasekhar Ghosh will also receive the D. Lit. Apart from this, molecular biologist Dipankar Chatterji will be given the honorary D. Sc.
JU students were left dismayed by Tendulkar’s decision as they were eager to see the master blaster at their campus. “I am a great fan of Sachin sir and I really wanted to meet him for his autograph. It is sad that he is not coming,” Pranjoy Sen, an arts student said.
In 2011, Tendulkar had also refused to accept a similar offer from the Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences (RGUHS).
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