Ramanujan essay dropped to save PM another headache?

NEW DELHI: October 9 was a Sunday. An unusual day to call an emergency meeting of Delhi University's academic council. The main agenda was fairly routine stuff: approval of certain courses.

However, tucked away as supplementary agenda was a proposal to do away with A K Ramanujan's essay, 'Three Hundred Ramayanas' from the history course - a proposal that was passed, triggering one of the fiercest debates in recent times in the academic world.

Actually, it was a landslide win for the Ramanujan nay-sayers. In all, 111 members voted against the essay; only nine offered dissent. Matters might have rested there, but they didn't.