Sibal steps in, Anand to get his doctorate

Zeenews Bureau New Delhi: After the intervention of Human Resource Minister Kapil Sibal, it was decided that World Chess Champion Viswanathan Anand would finally get his honorary doctorate. After Sibal stepped in, it was declared that Anand would be conferred the honorary doctorate this evening. It was learnt that Sibal personally called Anand this morning and requested him to take the honour from the Hyderabad University. Earlier, it was reported that the Indian government was not sure whether he is an Indian or Spanish citizen. According to reports, Anand was recently denied the honorary doctorate degree because the authorities could not get approval from the government in this regard. Anand was to get an honorary doctorate from the University of Hyderabad on Monday but the university could not confer on him the award since the government did not clear his name. This left Anand’s wife Aruna shooting furious mails to the organisers of the ongoing International Congress of Mathematicians in Hyderabad who have been lobbying hard so that the chess grandmaster gets this coveted award. In 2009, the University decided that the award would be given to Anand. The University then formally forwarded the proposal to the Human Resource Development Ministry which, reportedly cancelled his nomination on the ground that they are sot sure about Anand’s citizenship as he currently lives in Spain. HRD Ministry officials finally concluded that they think that Anand is indeed an Indian citizen but said that they had received the proposal only on August 18. This led to the delay in clearing his name, a government sources revealed.