CUTTACK: Had the students' union of Ravenshaw University only wanted chief minister Naveen Patnaik as chief guest at their annual function, the even could have taken place after three years. However, students wanted Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi too leading to cancellation of the function. Sources said soon after the students' body zeroed in on Modi, the university authorities felt jittery, apparently apprehensive of how Naveen, no more in the NDA, would react and sat over the proposal.

Vice-chancellor B C Tripathy denied he was against inviting Modi to address the students. "I had no hesitation in inviting Modi nor did I sit over the proposal. We had rather sent the invitation first to chief minister Naveen Patnaik in March thinking that after getting his consent we will send an invitation to his Gujarat counterpart. But two months passed, no response came from the chief minister's office," the VC said.

Students' union secretary Abhilash Panda refused to buy the VC's version. "Our union in its executive body meeting on March 9 had unanimously decided to invite Modi as chief speaker along with Naveen Patnaik as chief guest to the function scheduled this month. The proposal was sent to the vice-chancellor and he did nothing," Panda said.

"We had chosen Modi for obvious reasons. He has proved his mettle by scripting a tangible growth story in Gujarat and the whole country wants to listen to him as evident from the scores of invitations he had been receiving from different educational institutions within India and abroad. The VC for reasons best known to him, did not send our proposal to the Gujarat chief minister. We made several requests to the VC since March to act on our proposal, but he did not react," Panda, who resigned from his post on Thursday in protest, alleged.

The VC said he had proposed the students to invite intellectuals, academicians and writers, but they stuck to Modi. "The students did not listen to my alternative proposal. Since summer vacation has started from May 23, the students' union function stands cancelled," the VC said.