Harini vs. Prime Minister in the matter of conferment of Delhi University’s honorary doctorate

The Indian Express of 9 September 2025 said the Delhi University was set to confer an honorary doctorate on Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister Dr. Harini Amarasuriya, who is an alumna of Hindu College, one of Delhi University’s better-known colleges.

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The conferring of an honorary doctorate on a deserving person has conventionally been a matter of recognising the knowledge he or she has produced. Of recent, there is a trend this academic recognition is increasingly becoming a political act, offered as an extension of political largesse or influence peddling. When Prime Minister Dr Amarasuriya or any other Sri Lankan government representative, political or bureaucratic, accepts an award, it is not a simple private act, as it implicates both the government and by extension the country.

Let us consider the political dimensions of this honorary doctorate. If the Prime Minister attends the dedicated convocation and accepts the award, she goes beyond being mere Harini. The symbolic implications of her association with Delhi University at the present time — if she accepts the doctorate, and that too under the direct auspices of the Indian government, cannot be equated to the time she was an undergraduate at the Hindu College from 1991—1994.According to a notice issued on 8 September 2025 by the Registrar of Delhi University, a meeting of the university’s main decision-making body, the Academic Council has been called for the 11 September to discuss this matter. But the interest to offer an honorary doctorate to Dr. Amarasuriya did not come from within the university.