Kerala Kalamandalam to probe Sunanda Kalaratna award

ALAPPUZHA: Kerala Kalamandalam will probe into the selection of Sunanda Nair, a US-settled dancer who holds a DLitt from a fly-by-night university, for Kalaratna award last year.

Registrar Dr K.K. Sundaresan said it would be unacceptable if she provided fake information.

“Kalamandalam selects candidates on performance. However, it’s a serious matter to receive the honour from a fake institution. So we will check the authenticity of the Kings University and take strict action,” he said.

He also urged DC to share the information received from the US Department of Education with them to check the authenticity of the D.Litt.

Meanwhile, Ms Nair put out a Facebook post claiming she had completed her PhD from Bombay University.

On the contrary, her official website says she had only submitted the thesis on ‘The Intrinsic Lyrical Feminism in Mohiniy-attam’ in 2016. But, there’s no mention on whether the university had awarded the PhD. 

However, it cites the DLitt from the so-called Kings University.

Though Dr N.R. Gramaprakash, a governing body member of Kerala Kalamandalam, had said a private person instituted the Kalaratna award, the ceremony was held on its campus.

Meanwhile, K.G. Paulose, its former vice-chancellor, demanded a thorough probe into giving awards to people based on the fake information.

Meanwhile, S. Selvin Kumar, founder and president of the Kings University, when he called DC from Maryland, the USA on Thursday, admitted that his institution had no accreditation, but affiliation with International Listening Association, which also has no approval of accrediting agencies recognised by the department of education for title IV purposes.