The US-based International Institute of Church Management (IICM) conferred an honorary doctorate on Vijayakant “For the outstanding service he had rendered to society”. But the website became a talking point. It said, “One of the following Honorary Degrees (D.D, D.Min, D.Litt, D.Ltts, D.Hum, LL.D., Ph.D.) will be conferred upon the candidate, whenever we have our Monthly Conference in USA, India or other Countries, after the candidates give a certain minimum contribution towards the Honorary Doctoral Degree and a one-time contribution of the Life-Time Membership.” In other words, Vijayakant bought his doctorate. Many would say, "So what?". Sometime ago, the MGR Deemed University conferred a doctorate on director Shankar and actor Vijay.