While the adamant Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) government, by refusing to enter into a dialogue, for the past 25 days, with the agitating students demanding rollback of fee hike at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi, continues with the process of seriously damaging the quality of what used to be a world class academic institution, there are more disturbing incidents on other campuses, which indicate the deterioration in general quality of academic activity because of open interference of elements close to Rashtriya Swayansewak Sangh (RSS) or its ideology.
While students subscribing to sectarian Hindutva ideology are protesting against the appointment of Dr. Firoz Khan in the Department of Sanskrit Vidya Dharm Vigyan of the Banaras Hindu University (BHU), Varanasi, merely because he is a Muslim, the University authorities confirm that he fulfils all the criteria for being selected as an Assistant Professor at the university. Some protesting students have claimed that the appointment of a non-Hindu teacher is against the tenets of the university set up by Mahamana Malviya. But Madan Mohan Malviya had said that, ‘This country doesn’t belong to Hindus alone. It belongs to Muslims, Christians and Parsis, too. It will become strong and developed only when there is communal harmony among different communities living here.’ Malviya is known to have brought scholars of different ideological backgrounds from around the world to teach at the BHU. The protestors need to ask whether the founder of the university would have agreed with their logic.
In another shocking development, the Khwaja Moinuddin Chisti Urdu Arabi Farsi University at Lucknow has decided to confer honorary D. Litt. on RSS leader Indresh Kumar in their convocation to be held on 21 November, 2019. Ironically, he was once an accused in a 2007 bomb blast incident at the Khawaja Moinuddin Chisti Dargah in Ajmer itself. He had been an accused in the murder of another Hindutva worker Sunil Joshi, too. The Vice Chancellor of this university, Mahrukh Mirza, whose own educational quaifications are alleged to be suspect, should be asked what contribution Indresh Kumar has made to the society to deserve a D. Litt.? Indresh Kumar serves as margdarshak of Muslim Rashtriya Manch (MRM), associated with RSS, and Mahrukh Mirza is associated with MRM.
Advocate Mohammad Shoaib, President, Socialist Party (India), U.P., 9415012666
Sandeep Pandey, National Vice President, Socialist Party (India), Ph: 0522 2355978