MU gives fake gold medal,sponsor pulls out

“After that incident around a month ago,I was upset and drafted a letter to Vice-Chancellor Dr Rajan Welukar and went to meet him along with Kritika’s mother. I told him I wanted to discontinue the medal,but he assured us that they will come up with a transparent scheme for the medal to be conferred next year. He also told us that a small convocation ceremony would be organised in his office where Kritika would be given a pure gold medal. He had asked for a week’s time,but it has been over a month and they have not contacted me. MU has cheated me and the student,” Agarwal said.

For the past two years,Agarwal has been funding a gold medal for the MA Economics topper in the memory of his wife,Kalpana,who died in 2008.

Agarwal said he had put forth certain terms and conditions,which were agreed upon by the varsity authorities in 2009. However,on February 5,after the convocation ceremony,Agarwal was shocked to see the medal. “The medal I had sponsored was supposed to weigh 30 grams and the purity of gold should have been 999.05. The medal did not seem to weigh that much and wasn’t as pure as was mentioned in the actual design. It was also supposed to have my wife’s picture embossed on it,” he said.

MU has only two pure gold medals —the Palkhiwala gold medal for the LLM topper and the Kalpana Agarwal gold medal for MA in Economics. The university maintained that in the case of the latter,a small confusion happened due to an oversight.

Last year,Agarwal got the medal made himself and this year he gave the university the dye. The order for the medal was given along with all other medals,which are gold-plated,and so instead of making the medal in pure gold,a gold-plated one was also made,the university claimed.

MU’s controller of examination,Prof. Vilas Shinde,said the university had not cheated anybody. “I think the gold medal has been made,but we were supposed to organise a meeting with the topper and the sponsor to confer it. We are busy in important meetings pertaining to exams. The issue will be sorted out in the next two to three days.”

Agarwal said,“I have committed the biggest mistake of my life by choosing MU. I want to discontinue the medal. MU has insulted us and our emotions.”