St Stephen’s honours its prodigious alumni

Another alumni body accuses college of favouritism towards ruling party. HT reports.

St Stephen's College honoured 58 of its former students who have made it big in the fields of politics, academia, media, etc. The event was organised as part of the CF Andrews Distinguished Alumnus Awards.

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The list of awardees included ministers of state Shashi Tharoor and Sachin Pilot and several senior mediapersons, among others. But certain members of the Association of Old Stephanians accused the college of favouritism towards the "ruling party".

College officials, however, said that no such attempt had been made. On the contrary, the college said that they were merely honouring those who had made a significant contribution to society.

"Those who want to interpret differently, can. In doing so, it is their loss. As the head of the institution, I feel it is unfortunate that people feel this way. However, it is absolutely incorrect to say that we are appeasing the ruling party because many of whom we awarded are not even in the cabinet," said Valson Thampu, principal, St. Stephen's College.

Among others whom the college honoured were Delhi's Lokayukta Justice Manmohan Sarin, former chief election commissioner SY Quraishi, Delhi University vice-chancellor Dinesh Singh, principal secretary to the Prime Minister Pulok Chatterjee and TRAI chairman Rahul Khullar.

"This award brought back all the memories that we associate with college. It is truly an honour to be conferred with this award by our alma mater," said Shashi Tharoor, minister of state, HRD, who studied history in the college in the early seventies.