Talha Mannan (TM), a PhD student in the MANUU (Hyderabad) and the National Secretary of the Students Islamic Organization (SIO, established in 1982; an affiliate of the Jamaat-e-Islami-e-Hind-JIH, established in 1941 by Abul Ala Maududi) has come out with a critique in his piece published by a “Muslim” portal, maktoobmedia, dated August 26, 2025, “How (not) to talk about Aligarh Muslim University”. This was a week after the “second stage” of the hunger strike protest (hunger strike till death) was finally withdrawn in the pre-dawn moments of August 19, 2025.  The “first” was claimed to have been clinched by some girl students a few days earlier than August 19, 2025. Whereas the “third” stage came to an end with another glass of fruit juice offered by some girls (dukhtaraan-e-millat), subsequent to August 19, 2025.

While expressing his discomfiture with Yanis Iqbal’s and with Bhavuk Sharma’s pieces, (besides some of the write-ups of Prof Mohammad Sajjad), Talha Mannan (TM) has made what is termed as Strawman’s arguments. TM is manufacturing contentions out of nowhere and attributing these to the three authors.

For instance TM seems to suggest that a Leftist slogan, lal salam and laal-laal lehrayega) is equivalent to his Islamist slogan “Islam Ki Dawat”. First of all, no such Leftist slogan was raised in the AMU student protests of August 2025. Thus, he creates an illusion for himself that he has triumphantly refuted the arguments of the authors he purports to rebut. Also, how did he arrive at a conclusion that Bhavuk (and his PhD supervisor) are Marxists/Leftists, is also quite unclear? Of course, Yanis Iqbal does claim to be a Marxist, in his Facebook profile. TM’s motives become evident when he criticises the authors on account of failing to oppose the UP government’s ban on Namaz on roads.

As far as I have been able to follow from their publicly iterated positions, around the August 2025 protests of AMU students, they have raised the issue that JIH-SIO-Talha Mannan (JSTM) have not raised — their explicit and candid objection to the UP government’s pre-existing order (March 2025) banning roadside namaz. The JIH-SIO-Talha Mannan (JSTM) have maintained a silence on the said government order and he chose to take on the AMU Proctor who was trying to ensure that the UP government’s specific order doesn’t get violated. Such a shift of the student protest from being against the Proctor to making it against the Yogi government’s police, gave a pretext to the Yogi-led government’s police to launch a crackdown against the students who had already undergone the stun-grenade horror on December 15, 2019. [The immediate prelude of this horror itself awaits an expose]. That is how JSTM itself got the AMU students’ protest menacingly policed. Rather than accepting his own fault he is shifting the blames on the said three authors. This is sheer mischief.

Let it be noted that the AMU students began their protests on or before August 4, 2025, against the procedurally flawed fee-hike. Talha Mannan (TM) jumped into it five days later, on Friday August 8, 2025. The JIH-SIO-Talha Mannan (JSTM) remained silent on all the days of protests, preceding Friday August 8, 2025. Till August 8, no written statement, press communiqué of the JSTM has been found on the issue of fee-hike. Let it also be noted that in September 2024, the MANUU administration cancelled the students’ union elections scheduled for September 23, 2024. Talha Mannan (TM), contesting the MANUU Students’ Union elections, didn’t intensify his agitation there in Hyderabad, the way he suddenly jumped into the AMU protest on August 8, 2025 to make more vociferous demands for the right to roadside namaz and less for every other issue such as the procedurally flawed fee-hike and demand that elections for the AMU Students’ Union (AMUSU) be held. The JSTM was nowhere to be seen when the AMU girl students were protesting against power-cuts and the agitated girl students were maltreated by Proctorial professors in April 2025

Is it a case then that the JIH rarely exposes the ills within “Muslim managed or Muslim dominated” institutions, unless there is an intra-Muslim, sectarian disputes (for instance, a few months ago, there was a social and Urdu media outrage by JIH against the Darul Uloom, Deoband)? If the answer is in the affirmative, then this pathology that affects Muslim politics needs a deeper scrutiny. AMU has got many systemic flaws, such as a problematic localism, inbreeding (not only in enrolments, recruitments but also in the composition of the Executive Council (EC), in empanelling VCs and in recruiting higher officers and teacher-administrators, highly damaging the quality of academia. The long continuation of a handful of academically laggard teachers within AMU governance (who also extract lots of illegal benefits), and highly disproportionate preponderance of western UP + Azamgarh, financial and other corruption and irregularities, occupation of hostels by non-bonafide ex-students and hoodlums, massive corruption in contracts for supplies and civil constructions, patronage of AMU administration to certain dubious persons doubling as suppliers-contractors, and (also) a massive inflow of AMU teachers into majoritarian saffron outfits to curry favours (such as appointments to VCs!!). Why must posts of ad hoc Controller, ad hoc Finance Officer, ad hoc Registrar, too many Directors & OSDs must continue endlessly? Why must only a particular OSD get driver and security?

These serious, festering issues that plague AMU have, so far not  found any comprehensive expose’ from ‘Muslim bodies’ and their ‘leaderships.’

Besides Talha Mannan (TM)’s duplicity and cunningness, he is also self-contradicting himself and appears confused. At one place he calls Bhavuk’s position (“Why Protests at AMU take a Rightward Shift?”, LinkedIn, August 14, 2025) as being governed by his “Hindu, upper-caste” upbringing, while on the other he speculates Bhavuk’s write-up to be doing with his flawed “Left-Liberal” framework.

Historically speaking, within AMU, students’ protests often acquire a strand of demonizing the Left (the surkha) and then mobilizing [Muslim] students by raising the bogey of “Islam in Danger”..

TM has tried to misrepresent Bhavuk’s position as if he wrote against Namaz per se, which is absolutely false. I haven’t come across any of his writing stating that. The only point, if I haven’t missed something, Bhavuk was trying to make was the refusal to engage with and oppose the UP government’s order (March 2025) banning Namaz by the SIO or the protesters. According to Bhavuk, what Talha instead chose to do was holding the Proctor responsible for not letting Namaz be performed at the protest site as if the Proctor, and not the UP government, that had imposed the ban. [The JSTM seems to be unaware of the fact that the University Road of AMU from the Bab-e Syed to the Centenary Gate isn’t owned by the AMU; it is only used by the AMU; its ownership lies with the Aligarh Nagar Nigam].

What Bahvuk insisted on was that the JSTM has almost side-tracked the central issue of fee-hike which concerns all religious communities and atheists of AMU, and has (TM included) turned it into a Muslim identitarian issue. The AMU alumni too jumped into it only after August 8, insisting to speak only on the namaz issue (an audio conversation between an ex-student leader, Amir Mintoe and the Proctor, Prof. Wasim Ali had been circulated).  Such a twist and turn given by the JSTM weakened overall student solidarity. Also, the battle against the AMU administration was turned into battle against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government. Tactically this was a dangerous shift. The student protesters (vulnerable in the face of the BJP’s Neo-Hindutva regime) were made to confront the state and BJP, and less the AMU administration. This was exactly what was needed to weaken student’s mobilization and protest, while strengthening the AMU administration. This was also how and when (August 8, 2025) the JSTM gave a cause to the police to meddle into the affairs of AMU, the protests. Who then is responsible for involving the police in student protests? It is Talha Mannan, the JSTM; not the three writers Talha is trying to shift blame on.

The JSTM collusion with the functionaries of the Muslim managed institutions and JSTM’s prejudices in favour of privileged elite-powerful segments of Muslims (in this case, the AMU administrators) have become sharp and evident during and after the protest of August 2025.

TM does not talk about the timing of the Students’ Union elections previously agreed on in December 2025, after the semester examinations. JSTM has no questions on the refusal of the AMU administration to convene the Students’Union elections in August-September 2025.

It is quite well known that in December 2025, after the end-semester exams, most of the distant provinces’ hostellers leave for their respective homes in Bihar, Bengal, Assam, Kerala and Kashmir. Those left are the ones living closer to Aligarh i.e. the western UP students. Would not this leave the field open for the western UP lobby (aligning with the Azamgarh lobby) to gain control of the Students’ Union? AMU has already been quite infamous for its regionalism and factional politics and this chaotic-chauvinistic power play and such non participative elections will heighten this trend.

Faultline with the JIH’s Worldview 

Why is it that the tone and tenor of the speech by TM makes us believe that Muslim majority campuses are being conceived and portrayed as Muslim exclusive spaces where the Hindu minority is not to be taken along? Constitutionalism’s selective use and the disdainful attitude of the JIH and RSS towards the Constitution is no secret. That the JIH had allied with the saffron forces in 1975 is too well known a fact to be repeated here especially after the publication of Anderson’s and Jaffrelot’s works on the Emergency. Pan-Islamism finds endorsement from TM in the politics of Muslim victimhood where Islamic solidarity is concealed. The Indian saga of the Islamisation of Knowledge (IOK) project is not a problem for the left, liberal or Hindu Right Wing government. Chosen Muslims associated with it do not face problems in any of these regimes in fact all such characters find reward with some position of power. While Saffronisation is critiqued, Islamisation is spared. This double standard is not going to help in the fight against Hindutva. In fact such an attitude has helped in Hindutva attaining power.

Tragically, Muslim reactionary are even today strong enough to send a clear message to the non-Muslim students of AMU that even in today’s era of Hindutva hegemony, writing against the all-powerful Indian Home Minister is easy but a Hindu minority of AMU cannot write against the Muslim Right Wing. All AMU insiders know too well that the JIH wields a significant influence within the structures of AMU. It was these fundamentalist forces which ensured that Prof. Irfan Habib wasput under suspension in 1981. When Abrar Kashif came to a Mushaira in Kennedy auditorium last year (2024), the applause of the students on his “Pan-Islamic” nazm exhorting Mujahids (soldiers) from Afghanistan and Khurasan, had put the University to shame, drawing widespread criticisms on the social-media. Why it is so was easily forgotten that, Pan-Islamism had created a Hindu consolidation post-Khilafat Movement, which eventually became one of the factors in the Partition of India? Lala Lajpat Rai (1865-1928) had worked in collaboration with the Khilafat Movement. But soon after, he realised the dangers of Pan-Islamism and turned into a critic of anyone invoking this phenomenon. Among the Muslim intellectuals, only Intezar Hussain has had the moral courage to admit this in his biography of Hakim Ajmal Khan, Ajmal-e Azam (1999).

The JIH’s stated aim is creation of a theocratic state and for achieving this purpose they need to enhance the numbers of the Muslim population even by conversion (Dawat). JIH’s love for Muslim majoritarianism is no secret. Hence, their slogan, Islam ki Dawat, provides justification for the Hindutva project of Shudhi, Ghar Waapsi. Just see the resemblance between JIH’s Hukumat e Ilahi (Divine Governance) and Non Biological, Parmatma appointed PM!

No wonder then that the saffron outfits insisted for performing “Hanuman Chalisa” inside the AMU campus, a t funded residential university of the Indian state. It was after the call for “Islam ki Dawat” came from JSTM on August 8, 2025, that the call for Hanuman Chalisa inside AMU was echoed by saffron outfits as a “package deal”. The announcement was made by Hindu Raksha Dal’s state convener, Gaurav Sisodia, who was later placed under house arrest in Ghaziabad to prevent him from reaching Aligarh (The New Indian Express)!

This guilt is confessed by the JSTM kind of forces with the fact that the officially uploaded video-clip of TM’s speech (of August 8, 2025 at the Bab-e-Syed of AMU) has edited out the TM’s slogan of “Islam ki Dawat”.

It also needs to be stated that the AMU has a few dozen mosques (pesh-Imams, paryer leaders paid salaries by the University Grants Commission-UGC!), and not a single temple! This, by the way is an issue with Hindus students, even beyond those inclined towards majoritarian Hindutva. This policy is even at variance with the Holy Quran itself since the Quran says La IkraHa Fil Deen meaning there is no compulsion in the matter of religion (it appears in Surah-al Baqrah verse 256 also) and Lakum Deenukum Waliya Deen meaning for you is your religion and for me is mine. JSTM’s Dawat is in sharp contradiction with this verse of Quran. JIH’s Dawat would/should be seen as ominous by Liberal-Left and a tool for the Neo-Hindutva state power to repress the Muslims and reinforcing the stereotype of Muslims as radicalised bigots!

Thus the JSTM in this agitation stands as a culprit of putting India’s Muslims in great danger of repressive Hindutva state.

Sir Syed was against Pan-Islamism and he was a rational interpreter of the Quran. Maududi in his book Tanqeehat, attacks Sir Syed for borrowing “western thought” and inculcating western values into them. It is an irony that the very students benefiting from the fruits of Sir Syed’s enterprise are in solidarity and sometimes even having intimate collusion with such organisations opposed to Sir Syed’s vision. JIH’s duplicitous politics of Muslim majoritarianism in Islamic countries and minoritarianism in India stands thoroughly exposed, by now. Talha cannot play both ways. TM’s play of Victimhood Syndrome, while ground realities of victimisation of disenfranchised and poor Muslims are addressed more by the Liberal-Left. Not so unreasonably, a distinguished Aligarhian, K M Ashraf (1903-1962) clubbed JIH with CIA in his slim book (in Urdu) on Hindustani Muslim Siasat.

These Muslim communal organisations who play the victimhood card, reflect a form of minoritarianism while, on the other hand, rubbishing all secular-democratic forces. They attack Hindu majoritarianism in the rest of India while promoting Muslim majoritarianism within a Muslim majority campus. AMU cannot be expected to exist as a Vatican. Only Liberal-Secular Constitutionalism can guarantee minority rights. Islamist Minority Right Wing (and Pan Islamic politics) can only enable Hindutva.

Muslim reactionary forces such as JSTM must realise that it is not they who provide Rs 1200 crores to a modern university called Aligarh Muslim University (AMU). This fund comes from the Indian state because of its Liberal-Secular Constitution, which JSTM disdains. The bid, even now made, of minority communalists of converting Hindus to Islam in order to establish a Hukumat-e-Ilahiya, is a dangerous game. It needs to be unequivocally shunned. We have seen enough destructions of humans and values by the Salafi regime in Saudi Arabia and by the Taliban regime in Afghanistan.

(The author is a former student who has requested anonymity, he graduated in Sunni Theology from the AMU after studying at the Nadwat-ul-Ulema-Editors)

Related:

The Solipsism of Faith: A Response to Talha Mannan

Reluctant Democrats

Political History of India’s Two Muslim Universities since 1947

The post Is AMU, a Vatican of India’s reactionary Muslim elite? appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Around two months ago the BJP-led government brought a flawed and ill-intended Bill to amend the Waqf Act 1995. It created a furore, and ever since, newspapers, news-portals, Youtube videos have been educating the masses through their “explainers”. Opinion pieces from experts and the theologians too have been published, interjections into the issue with their own position. All this while, the AMUTA, for whatever reasons, has not been able to call a general body meeting or hold discussion sessions. Eventually, on Sunday, September 22, 2024, they called a meeting. Given the general mood on the campus against the Bill, one assumed that there would have been a near consensus on finding ways of working out political tactics and strategies of rejecting and resisting the move. One expected there would be a discussion more on this specific aspect.

That was however not to be. Only two speakers spoke at a “sickening” length as if fellow academics sitting there were school students waiting to be educated, threadbare. This paternalism of these academics against their own colleagues made many among the audience uncomfortable. Speakers’ assumption that others had nothing significant to say, was irksome. The affair degenerated further when two of the longest speaking teachers sought yet another session to again speak on issues they claimed to have omitted to speak on! The presiding authority was generous enough to grant them a second session, again ignoring the fact that others were also competent enough to speak on the issue. These other speakers-in-waiting including this writer (who was the first among the serving AMU faculty to have intervened through his column on the Waqf Bill issue) had a right to speak at greater length: to propose preparing a draft (alternate) bill that could be put in the public domain to mobilise constructive public opinion and also to solicit support of cross-sections of people, including the opposition political parties apart from some of the allies in the ruling coalition. 

Treating the fellow academics as children

In some ways, the two longest speakers were probably right in treating their colleagues as infants or their inferiors. This has to be illustrated by a one instance. This writer used an expression to describe the Executive Council which is massively dominated by a select club of internal teachers. Hence I used the the expression, “Incestuous Club”. This expression was first used by a columnist on March 6, 2023. She then wrote, AMU’s “Executive Council, Academic Council, and the Court are incestuous clubs where everyone is everyone’s someone”.  On March 10, 2023, this piece was rebutted by a professor of law cum vice chancellor of a law university [he eventually made it to the panel for AMU-VC in October-November 2023]. His rebuttal was anything but a precise objection against any sexual connotation of the expression. The EC members aggrieved with my usage of the expression cannot claim to have been ignorant about the columns and rejoinders. The reason being, a long thread of debate on the issue has been carried on The Print.In and on Rediff.Com, besides other portals in 2023. Let it be added that a “synonymous” expression, “blind inbreeding” [in recruitments], was used by the AMU Official Enquiry Committee Report, 1961.

Ever since then (March 6, 2023), dozens of meetings of the AMU Executive Council (EC) have been held thus far. None of these four, or for that matter, other EC members, have raised any objection to the expression. Thus, their silence can be construed as their consent or endorsement of the expression. 

This writer used this expression on a Facebook (Meta) post. They didn’t object to the expression on Facebook or on Whatsapp group of the AMU teachers, called “AMU Faculty 1” where I could have helped them with Dictionary. They, in vengeance and to intimidate me, straight away silently/confidentially, submitted a complaint against this writer, to the Vice Chancellor, possibly to get me penalised or gagged. This is now admitted by at least two (in fact, three) of the four signatories that they have written to the VC to curb my academic freedom. 

The Oxford Advanced Learners’ Dictionary clearly provides the meaning of the expression, “incestuous” club, “of a group of people that have close relationships with one another and do not include people outside their group”. The Dictionary, further illustrates it, in order to make it clearer, by using the expression in a sentence: “the incestuous atmosphere of media discourse”. 

We the teachers have elected four teachers to represent us inside the Executive Council, to safeguard our academic freedom, against the Vice Chancellor. Far from doing so, they are, instead, unfortunately, approaching the VC to penalize us and curb our academic freedom.  At least one of them came to me saying, he shouldn’t have signed on such a document. I said to him that of he regrets his act, he should consider withdrawing the complaint. He declined. 

The Vice Chancellor would, one expects, understand the dictionary meaning as well as the extended meaning of the expression in question, and she will treat the reported complaint accordingly.    

The founder admin of the abovementioned WhatsApp Group of the AMU teachers (almost all Muslims) is one of the four elected members of the EC-AMU. For long, a Pakistani member was added to the WhatsApp Group. Once I spotted it and objected strongly to this. His response was, “it happened inadvertently”. My response was, if they have got a habit of submitting complaint to the VC, why shouldn’t I bring it to the notice of the VC, the Government and also to the media? They had no response.  

Further, one of the four elected members to the EC advised me to refrain from consulting dictionaries; that I should concentrate on teaching history [whereas he indulge in campus (politics) through the EC; would carry out his Tablighi Jama’at activities and the Drama Club engagements, besides doing Mathematics!]. He further preached me not to teach/discuss/raise the issues of caste. Asserting his immodesty, he insisted on adding the prefix of “Honourable” for the AMU-EC (and by implication, for its members, including himself), regardless of no such protocol specified by the AMU. 

I look upon this argument with him as one with a person who holds a right wing ideology and is committed to depoliticising the electorate. Outraged, I argued with him referring to Juan Linz’s book (2000), Totalitarian and Authoritarian Regimes, which argues that, authoritarianism relies upon a “mentality” (“way of thinking and feeling more emotional than rational that provide non-codified ways of reacting to different situations”). Thus, by depoliticising common people and by trapping them into irrationalities they facilitate variants of authoritarianism and the personality cult (to which, let me add) of “honourables”.  Such people choose to forget that honour is commanded, not demanded. I wish there was a provision of right to recall such representatives!” He had no response to this on the WhatsApp Group.

Another elected representative, the Joint Secretary of the AMUTA, while inviting the teachers to attend the meeting on the Waqf issue, first circulated an “intimidating” message as to whosoever from among the AMU teachers is referring to the faults (retrogression on caste and gender) of India’s Muslims in the 1970s-1980s and asks the Qaum to self-introspect in order to find out the possible reasons of the rise of Neo Hindutva, according to him, amounts to “blaming the victim” and therefore s/he is a Qaum’s villain; therefore only he can command teachers to attend the meeting.  

In a Muslim majority campus like AMU, any academic with an independent (read “contrarian”) view, is already demonised as Qaum’s traitor, by the elected representative. Given the prevalence of competitive right wing radicalism, such intolerance and provocations might endanger the life of the insider-academics espousing “contrarian” views on such issues.  

Be that as it may, the point I am trying to make here is: (1) Either the two long, self-indulgent speakers on the Waqf issue were absolutely right in treating the fellow academics as school kids with spoon-feeding as pedagogy. Or, (2) The speakers are too self-obsessed and narcissistic to make way for listening to fellow colleagues and more importantly to concentrate more on working out the strategies of resistance. Or, (3) They harboured an intention to consume much of time and thereby not letting this session culminate into working out a strategy to resist in a comprehensive way, by a longer discussion on that specific aspect? (To be fair to them, this is less likely, though).

Anyway, on the intervention of fellow academics in the assembly, focus was brought back to working out a draft bill. This would eventually be endorsed by the academics attending the meeting (There was a thin presence in the meeting).   

Alienation of the Qaum, or disjunction between the Qaum and its self-serving elite    

Most interesting aspect is, these educated elites of the Qaum were then pledging to fight the BJP regime, whereas, the commoners of the Qaum have already been on the streets against the Waqf Bill for the last many weeks. Barring one or two exception, the collective of the AMU teachers seem to have risen to register their protest belatedly. This shows how yawning is the gap between the commoners of the Qaum and its educated, affluent elites!

Even more importantly, while these elites do persuade the commoners of the Qaum to keep waging wars against the ruling dispensation, they themselves behave with cunning opportunism. Consider the empanelment result of the AMU-VC in October-November 2023. Unlike other central universities, AMU empanels its VC through its own EC and Court (both the bodies excessively dominated by internal members), without advertising the position to invite application from across India. This select Club (EC & Court) eventually ended up empanelling all the three from the internal faculty members in November 2023. The predecessor VC too was not only internal faculty but also a resident of the town for the last few generations; he eventually became a legislator belonging to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in UP Council as well as vice president of the ruling party. This unprecedented inbreeding was so brazen that some of the internal teachers seeking to be empanelled as VC have approached the Allahabad High Court to challenge this. 

Insiders in the AMU know too well as to which of these (empanelled) candidates for VC-ship or their alleged patrons have been writing columns in favour of the BJP-RSS in the national English dailies, testifying further to their opportunism. AMU insiders also know it very well as to which of the AMU teachers (aligning with Muslim BJP legislator) canvassed for the BJP candidates in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Videos of such event(s) had circulated among the AMU teachers and on the social media. The AMU insiders also know with considerable clarity as to which of the EC members (from among the AMU teachers and teacher-administrators in the EC), and their clouts, were inclined towards which of these “pro-regime” candidates for VC-ship. 

The short point is: sections of these elite Clubs of AMU have already aligned with the ruling BJP and at the same time the Club has also been instigating the commoners to keep fighting the BJP and facing reprisals from the hate-filled vindictive regime. Understandably, this approach provides such opportunist elites with stronger bargaining power vis a vis the governing party.  

AMU’s Own “Anti-Waqf” (mis) deeds

The AMU itself is alleged to have indulged in erasing the names and identities of the Waaqif (the donor of land estates and assets who institutes/creates the Waqf or charitable endowment). For instance, it has been reliably learnt that the renowned physicist cum the last principal of the MAO College (when it became incorporated into AMU in 1920) and also the founder of the department of Physics in the Lucknow University, Prof. Wali Mohammad (1886-1968) had instituted the Waqf for AMU; one of these is the costly land on which a residential Hall of students is existing. The Hall is named after Nadim Tarin who bore the construction cost of the students’ residential Hall. Sadly, the name of the donor/waaqif of the land stands obliterated. We are told, there could be many such Waqf estates and assets dedicated to AMU, wherein the Waaqifs/donors remain unacknowledged and anonymized.  

In other words, with such state of affairs and the corruption of land-grabbing (by the influential people within the state administration, Waqf Boards and society), ordinary Muslims have become cynical. There is a huge deficit of the people’s connect with the Waqf estates and assets. This would dissuade the common people from adequately agitating and mobilising against the Waqf Bill 2024. This in turn, one apprehends, would fail to mount as much of pressure on the regime, as is required. 

I made similar arguments in my essay as to how and why the current dispensation succeeded in demonising the best of our universities. Questioning the relevance of India’s elite institutions to the social and economic challenges facing Indian societies, I argued that the lack of socially relevant research and teaching has contributed in part to society’s disaffection with “our respectable institutions.”   

The significant disconnect between the educated elites and the common Muslims pose a critical challenge. As highlighted by Omar Khalidi (2010) who records a damning indictment: “[research] publications on Indian Muslims since 1950 to 2010 reveals that the three AMU faculty combined [Political Science, Sociology, Economics] have contributed little to the burgeoning literature on Indian Muslims”. Of course, the Indian state didn’t stop them from carrying out such researches on the India’s Muslim communities.

 Moreover, as Daniele Struppa notes, “A university is a microcosm of our larger society that reflects different beliefs, ideologies, experiences, and backgrounds. While that is exactly what I love about a university community, it also comes with the reality that prejudice lives within our communities as well: we are not immune to the ills of our society”. 

Given this concern, the challenge before the academia in our times is to establish an effective and efficacious connect with the rest of the society, if the current democratic downslide has to be resisted and arrested with forging solidarities. Quite a number of teachers (with clout) in AMU, at the moment, seem to be missing this point, as they are the ones either falling into the trap of becoming practioners of Muslim communalism or aligning opportunistically with the Hindu Right, or both. Patronage-distribution and clientelism is embedded in the governance structures of AMU. So much so that some teachers have shamelessly been continuing in certain administrative offices of the AMU for the last 10 to 12 years, or even more! Some of them holding three administrative positions concurrently, compromising with their teaching; forget about their research. Their clout is so entrenched that successive VCs have failed to replace them with new faces in the University administration. 

Such a pathetic state of affairs needs to be addressed immediately by many reforms including change in composition of the EC, which defiantly adopts any kind of resolution, disregarding financial implications, sense of justice and the government’s or UGC’s inviolable norms. For instance, for recruitments in the AMU schools, they have outrageously reversed the norms of the Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan (KVS, which has got only 30% component on interview and 70% component on written test-for admissions). In contrast, the requirement for AMU schools is reversed,  70% for the interview and only 30% for written test. This is obviously designed to favour their own candidates, already recruited on a temporary basis, in large numbers, over the last many years. Likewise, in certain cases, some influential employees have placed themselves in Old Pension Scheme despite having been recruited on regular basis after 2004 (even advertisement of the post was after 2004 making it even stronger case of New Pension Scheme). The Audit and Account of the government needs thoroughly probe this. The examination system is thoroughly compromised even at the level of question paper-setting and moderation. Yet, the Controller of Examinations has been continuing in his office for very long. The rules state that tenure-statutory administrative positions of the University are required to be advertised and filled every five years. There are many such irregularities, including financial chaos, which need probing by independent government agencies. The assets of such teacher-administrators need to be probed by such agencies too.

The question for the ordinary men and women of the Qaum is: if their educated and affluent elites can’t mount enough pressure upon the AMU-VC to replace these clouts and reshuffle the AMU administration then such a weak-kneed and helpless lot can’t be expected to muster enough strength to press the current dispensation in New Delhi to withdraw the Waqf Bill 2024.  

Most important of all, ordinary Muslims need to be alerted by the conscientious section of people, that a chunk of their educated and affluent elites have switched over to the saffron establishment, leaving them vulnerable, isolated and, above all, helpless to fend for themselves. Felix Pal (2020) has documented a section of western UP Muslim elites opportunistically joining saffron outfits.

The time has come for the AMU [Teachers’ Association] and the communities to rise to the occasion and unite their members. They must actively engage in strategies that not only resist the Waqf Amendment Bill but also address the broader implications of elite’s perfidious detachment from the community. Only by fostering a genuine dialogue and acknowledging the voices of all constituents can we hope to challenge the majoritarian regime effectively. The survival and dignity of the embattled Qaum of Indian Muslims and the country’s organic plurality depend on it. 

(The author is a Professor of History, Aligarh Muslim University)

Related:

The Waqf Bill 2024: An Open Letter to the Joint Committee of Parliament, the Opposition, and India’s Muslim Communities

Three Banes of India’s Muslims: Victimhood Syndrome, Power Theology, Obsession with Identity Politics

No Central Funds, Aligarh Muslim University’s Second Campus in West Bengal Faces Uncertain Future

The post The AMU Teachers’ Association (AMUTA) and Waqf Worries: Ordinary members of the Qaum are caught between a self-serving elite and a majoritarian Regime appeared first on SabrangIndia.

In our personal interaction, I somehow felt that Muzaffar Ali was here in Aligarh to know about and feel the pulse of Muslim youth, given the dark and harsh times that India is passing through.

Discussing Zikr was, I think, just his pretext to turn into an event — so that he could have a direct interaction with young boys and girls. His self-effacing, un-assuming person, humility and modesty personified, having shed all the airs of his feudal ancestry and the celebrity-status was hardly interested in discussing his book. Rather, he was keener to get an insight into and reading the young minds. So, he was with us, first (on January 25) when he went to the Women’s College Auditorium.

The following day, the same event was held in the Kennedy Auditorium. The AMU’s Kennedy Complex is known for its extra-curricular activities; for its Drama Club, Film Club, Music Club, Literary Club, Bait-Baazi (poetry) Club, etc.

The AMU of the 1960s was one of the finest eras of AMU’s political and academic stirrings, records the historian and AMU alumnus, Mushirul Haan (1949-2018) in one of his academic essays published in the India International Quarterly (2003), “Recalling Radical Days in Aligarh”. Besides other essays for preceding decades, such as Nationalist and Separatist Trends in Aligarh, 1915-47; and  Majid Hayat Siddiqui’s 1987 essay on AMU, 1904-45.

Too many of Aligarh’s Urdu memoirs paint a very rosy, romantic picture of AMU life. The only exception is the Hindi novel, Topi Shukla (1969), of Rahi Masoom Raza (1927-1992), which depicts the darker sides of the campus life at AMU.. Muzaffar Ali also avoids discussing the academics of the campus in the 1960s. May be that is because, he doesn’t have good words to say about the academics?

Muzaffar Ali did his B.Sc. (Geology, Chemistry and Botany) in 1964. He paints a rosy picture of the creative world of the Kennedy Complex of AMU. Unlike Naseeruddin Shah’s wonderfully written memoir, And Then One Day, who almost avoids painting such a picture. The memoir (1999) of the actor Saeed Jaffery (1929-2015) offers an equally romantic picture of the art, theatre and sports world of AMU, but that was long before the enviable Kennedy Complex of the 1960s. Jaffery owed it to the school teacher (later, headmaster), Syed Mohd Tonki (1898-1974).

Though, both Muzaffar and Naseeruddin acknowledge the contribution of Zahida Zaidi (1930-2011) in their creative lives. She was, “our window to art”, who inspired him “to think from a feminine viewpoint”; where “theatre and painting came together”, and that “this was an Anglicized group and made Aligarh a little more acceptable to a Westernised world”. Urdu poetry and literature were a world unto itself”; “a small cauldron of artists and one had to dive into it”; “Aligarh had the pace, leisure and culture to make people become what they wanted to be… they existed in a dream world and could read meaning into their dreams with the aid of the poetic world around”. “Rahi sahib”, who gave to us so many novels and films including the tele-serial Mahabaharata, “was indeed a mentor and inspiration”, was a “colossus of poetry”. Muzaffar Ali’s “passion for painting went back to Aligarh”, a “backbone of his creative journey” and which offered a “gift of zamana shanasi (understanding the world)”.

While interacting directly with the students in the Kennedy Auditorium, he was responding to the difficult times they were living in. He suggested they seek solace from and resilience in the “Aligarian sense of humour” and wit and poetry and literature. He devotes a long chapter in his book on his life in AMU,

“The Imli Tree”; the tree is supposed to be a symbol of faithfulness and forbearance, in the Budhist tradition. When I spoke of this to him, Muzaffar feigned ignorance and evaded my query as to why did he refer to Imli (tamarind) tree for the sweet [and sour?] memories of his AMU life. His plan to make a film on the trauma of pre-Partition Aligarh remains unfulfilled. In Aligarh, he identifies, Asghar Wajahat to be his closest friend. Referring to a line of Majaz’s poem, the AMU’s anthem (taraana), he complains, there is “too much of barrenness for the clouds [abr] that rise from Aliagrh to irrigate the parched world”. Throughout his memoir, he comes out as a brilliant translator of both prose and poetry of Persian and Urdu into English; just as he has organised the autobiography in well-integrated, logically interconnected chapters, having creative profiles of many characters of his life.

The initial chapters of his memoir talk about his ancestry. He quotes from an unpublished PhD dissertation of his father submitted to the Lucknow University. He claims to belong to the Chauras of Gujarat, who claimed their descent from the Lord Rama of Ayodhya, the name, “signified that no human blood would be shed on its soil, no war would be fought on its ground”.

His father has been a strong influence on him, who “lived his life as a humanist, a life true to his country and its ideals of harmony, opposing anything that divided man”. Enamoured with the Brahmo Samaj, his father wrote on similarities between Advaita and Sufism, to find commonalities in faiths. His Abba, “specially gifted in the art of storytelling” told him stories at mealtimes; “stories and more stories made up the lessons of life”. Tilism-e-Hoshruba’s and Dastan-e-Amir Hamza’s characters such as magician Afrasiyab, the intelligent trickster Amr Ayyar were the usual stuff, in the Kotwara world of “simple innocence”, a holy town of Gola Gokaran Nath, with its Shiv Temple, built by his ancestors, which also had once the largest sugar mill in Asia, “a melting pot of ideas, of the coming together of beauty and humanity; seeing and living Sufism on the soil of Awadh”.

A fierce nationalist, vehemently opposed to and betrayed by the Muslim League; his father’s uncle having assured his father help in the elections, called him to a mosque on a Friday prayer, and told the assembled devotees that voting for him, against the League, would throw all them straight into hell. Muzaffar’s father was shocked and predictably lost the election in 1946. In return, after partition, his father would keep reminding, “a raven may not take a single bone from my body across to Pakistan”. His Abba loved someone in the kinship who “was often asked why he eulogized India, a country where cows are worshipped. He would retort that in Pakistan, donkeys are worshipped”.

For the students of modern Indian history to get such deep, unusual insights about the hazards of the politics of Khilafat and Partition, Muzaffar Ali’s memoir, and his father’s portrait into it, offers great wisdom.

Next to Intizar Husain’s Urdu biography of Hakim Ajmal Khan, Ajmal-e-Azam (1999), Muzaffar Ali’s memoir is perhaps one of the rarest pieces of writing to have some candid and forthright details about the futile and hazardous politics of Khilafat. This Pan-Islamist mobilisation gets a subtle disapproval from Muzaffar Ali. The Muslim leadership of India had misled the Muslim masses mobilising them for restoration of a corrupt and degenerated institution far away in Turkey. The Indian leadership, too, kept the masses in dark as to how much unpopular had it become. The dethroned fugitive Ottoman Caliph had her princesses married off to the Indian princes (aristocrats) in Awadh and Hyderabad. One such prince was Muzaffar’s father, educated in Britain. The princess however soon deserted his father, ran away to Paris with the baby-girl, Kaniz, who was recovered with great difficulties, in 1962. His father knew, by the 1930s, “that the Muslim League would result in an ugly India”. He remarks, “Undivided India was torn politically between its vast Muslim population and its struggle for independence. The British played a major role in shaping minds and loyalties. Fifteen million Indians fought a war that was not theirs”. In the World Wars the British used Indian armies, “one million of Indian soldiers died. The leadership working on fanning anti-British sentiments used this emotionally”.

Muzaffar Ali claims his father, as elected member of the legislature, helped “minimizing the impact of migration in 1947 leading to the rehabilitation of the Sikh population in large numbers in the Terai region”.

Muzaffar is also fascinated with “fearless (Be-Khauf) and self-reliant (Khud-Aitamaad) women, such as his father’s sister. Though, her migration to Pakistan had shattered his father; another blow to his father came in February 1964, when Muzaffar’s mother passed away. So was Muzaffar too; his brother and mother both were suffering from incurable ailments: “But my days in Aligarh had a deep undercurrent of turmoil… I would go back to Aligarh with more pain than I could rise above”. His project of making a film on the fearless, self-reliant Mughal Empress Nur Jahan however remains unfulfilled, as yet.

At the age of 22, in 1966, he went to Calcutta passing through, “poverty-stricken, jobless” regions of eastern India. “Calcutta was a city fluent in the language of money”, “a weapon of subjugation, of tyranny and exploitation”. It “opened a world I could not have imagined in the wildest of dreams”. He met there his extended kinship such as the novelist Attia Hossein, who “appeared as a character in Gone with the Wind but could represent the modern Lucknow of the 1930s”. He was introduced to the “English theatre world of Calcutta”, the film maker Mrinal Sen, and of course Satyajit Ray, with whom he worked. In Calcutta Muzaffar got his first wife Geeti Sen, an art historian, a PhD on the paintings of Akbarnama from Philadelphia.

Having discussed each of his great films in separate, exclusive chapters, the pursuit of film-making revealed to him “the ugliness of film politics; camps and groups, rumours and espionage”.

Describing his indulgence in electoral politics, he found out that the world was increasingly “becoming crueler”; he “could see the ugliness of politics, smell the stench of power”. While going for door-to-door campaign, he found that it was a “mug’s game” at his level, whereas at higher level it was “game for mugs”; it was “all about ego”; “simplicity was lost in the politics of caste and communalism”; “demented leadership misleading the simple minds”. His description of Amar Singh kind of character in politics is extremely perceptive; where “strange characters show up, holding our future to ransom”.

About Lucknow of the 1990s:

“[He] discovered that an invisible layer of the RSS had taken over the cultural fabric of Lucknow and the entire Awadh region, a reaction to the Muslim League. The erstwhile Muslim taluqdars had shattered the Ganga-Jamuni myth by affiliating with the Muslim League around the time of Partition. They were secular to the core but stood by the communal forces of the League”…. “There was a tacit understanding with Amar Singh that I had to lose”. “While we dreamt of a future for Awadh that evolved out of its heritage of interdependence between craft and culture, the venom of communalism was spreading fast [and furious]”.

Muzaffar Ali turned, again, to art and poetry. An art commentator identified Muzaffar, the painter, as an Abstract Expressionist. For the answer to the problems of fratricide in India, Muzaffar turns towards the poets, Rumi (man to lead humanity into the twenty first century) and Amir Khusrau, the two “will forever continue to water my art, and make miracles happen to soften hearts and refresh human souls. We salute their invisible sawaar (rider) on the horse [rakhsh] of ishq [love]”.

In the lap of the two sufi poets, he wraps up his memoir, Zikr (a Sufi terminology, with many layers of meanings): This reminds us of Ghalib’s couplet:

rau meñ hai raḳhsh-e-umr kahāñ dekhiye thame

ne haath baag par hai na pā hai rikāb meñ

May Muzaffar Ali live longer and healthier to give us a sequel of his memoir as well as to give us the films he has been contemplating to make!

(The author is a Professor of History, Aligarh Muslim University)

Related:

The assault on the National Film Archives and Films Division is an assault on Constitution

Bollywood’s Conscience Speak: Celebs against anti- CAA violence at Jamia, AMU

Saheb, Bibi aur Palestine? Bollywood Must Make it Clear if it Stands with Colonialism or with Freedom

The post Muzaffar Ali and his English language autobiography, Zikr:  hope for a beleaguered India? appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Lucknow: About 1,559 non-teaching staff of Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), who had called off their strike last month after Vice Chancellor Tariq Mansoor assured them that their contracts would be renewed and they would soon receive extension letters, have decided to renew their protest from January 16.  

The staff had gone on strike on December 30 over non-payment of salaries for the last month and permanent appointment at the varsity. Most of the protesters are temporary workers employed on a daily wage basis.

“We called off the protest after the VC promised to meet our demands in a day or two, including our extension letters along with salary for December, but this has not been fulfilled after more than 10 days. No one wants to protest against the university, but we have been forced to do so as it is a matter of our livelihood. The administration’s failure to release our salaries for December has forced us to do this,” Faisal Rayees, president of the Technical Staff Association, told NewsClick. 

“Due to non-receipt of salaries on time, many of us have been unable to pay for our daily expenses and are under constant stress. Some of us have sought loans from banks and are being penalised for late payments,” an employee told NewsClick.

Explaining the process of extension period from where the panic among employees started, the union president further said: “Before 2015, there was an extension every five months but the former vice-chancellor Zameer Uddin Shah changed it to one year and since then the same process is being followed. The extension of 1,559 staff was renewed on December 31, 2021 till December 2022, but it was not renewed by the current VC Tariq Mansoor,” he said, adding that a large section of staff had been working on temporary basis for more than a decade but due to administrative failure, they were under acute mental stress as they had not been regularised. 

“If someone is retiring, then the department concerned gives an advertisement, but unfortunately there is no selection committee for non-teaching staff. Even the government asked the university administration to make a schedule for non-teaching but this has never been done,” Rayees said. 

The union leaders said they had been raising the demand for job regularisation for a long time now but the state government just made hollow promises.

There are four categories under non-teaching staff — ministerial, secretarial, multi-tasking staff and technical staff. 

“Lower division clerk, registrar, finance officer, controller and even vice chancellor comes under the ministerial category of non-teaching staff while the entry point in secretarial includes stenographer, personal assistant, senior personal assistant and personal secretary. The 4th grade employees including gardener technical staff, driver, sanitation worker etc. are known as multi-tasking staff after the recommendation of 6th Pay Commission,” the union said. 

NewsClick also spoke with Shamim Akhtar, associate professor at Centre of Continuing and Adult Education and Extension and general secretary of AMU Employees Union, to understand the ongoing chaos. He said: “Is this justice that you take work for 30 days and when it comes to pay, the university administration turns a deaf ear? Furthermore, the tenure of non-teaching staff ends on December 31 every year, they get extension letters on January 1 automatically. Though it was assured that salary would be disbursed in a day or two, nothing has been done.”

Talking about ‘laxity’ of university administration in terms of regularisation of non-teaching staff, Akhtar said: “Even the Supreme Court order is to regularise contractual employees after three years of service and performance. They should at least be given a chance but nothing seems working on the ground. In 2020, a sanitation worker who was deputed at MM Hall died after 27 years of service but was not regularised. Hence, he was not eligible for any compensation, gratuity and pension. Another pump attendant Rajab Ali retired two months ago. He, too, is also not eligible for any perks and benefits.”

The union leaders also claimed that they keep writing to the university registrar who is accountable but they never ever get any reply from him about the reason behind the process. “It is not the creation of the current vice-chancellor that 1,559 posts of non-teaching staff are not regularised. This has happened for decades. The previous vice-chancellors should be held accountable for this, as it took 25-27 years to make a decision whether he/she should deserve permanent status or not,” Akhtar said. 

A union leader on the condition of anonymity told NewsClick: “The root cause of all the problems is favouritism in every department. Anybody who is close to the head of department, he/she gets permanent status. The selection committee for non-teaching staff has never met, no matter if one dies or serves for more than a decade. People are fearful to speak against government policies, and the administration.”  

Mohammad Wasim, the university proctor, claimed it was “due to lack of funds” that salary had not been disbursed to the employees. “The vice-chancellor and university administration are in touch with UGC (University Grants Commission) as the funds have not been released by the government. Salaries will be given as soon as the fund arrives,” he said. 

NewsClick also tried to contact AMU registrar Mohd Imran but in vain.

Courtesy: newsclick.in

The post UP: No Dec Salary, Regularisation of Non-Teaching Staff; AMU Employees Union to Protest Again appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Kolkata: It was supposed to be a sprawling campus spread over 288 acres, with infrastructures meant for kindergarten to undergraduate and postgraduate studies. However, the second campus of the famed Aligarh Muslim University at Murshidabad, West Bengal, is now facing a severe fund crunch due to the non-cooperation of the central government.

Presently, because of the fund crunch, even day to day activities of the institute has been affected.

After the institute’s establishment, only about Rs 60 crores have been allotted to the university campus so far, out of the total requirement of about Rs 1000 crores. As a result, the original proposal of having an engineering college, a medical college, and school facilities on the same campus has taken a hit. The university also offers MBA and undergraduate courses in Law and Education.

The campus is divided into two plots bifurcated by an irrigation canal. There was a proposal to join both sides with a bridge, which
has not happened yet.

Currently, only 520 students are pursuing their education on the 288-acre campus. The system of intake of students and professors is entirely done through the main campus. The Left Front government provided the land for this new campus in 2010. Back then, there were plans for the institute’s development, jobs for local residents and benefits to the minority community students in Murshidabad and the neighbouring districts like Birbhum, Burdwan, and Malda; these districts have a sizeable Muslim population.

Speaking to NewsClick, Prof Dr Nigamananda Biswas, Director in Charge of AMU’s West Bengal campus, said that there are indeed fund shortages in the institution and the everyday operation of the campus is affected by it. The second campus does not have funds for providing work to daily-wage workers for cleaning, gardening and security jobs, and all these are being done with a small workforce. He also informed that with an earlier tranche of funds, two hostels — one for boys and another for girls — were constructed.

The Grade A NAAC-accredited institute is now facing a serious challenge in maintaining its quality and keeping the word given to the people of Murshidabad that the campus will have amenities for KG to PG students.

Dr Badaruddoza, former Director during whose time the two hostels had come up, said to NewsClick that the institution’s condition, as far as he knows, is not good due to the lack of funds. Though there are 27 full-time teachers and the quality of faculty is excellent, the condition of the campus is in the doldrums due to the lack of attention from the policymakers at the central level. He added that after 2011, the state government has not been keen on backing the interest of AMU’s second campus before the Union government.

MD Salim, former Minority Affairs minister under the Left Front regime, was closely related to the project. He told NewsClick, “The
bright example set by Aligarh Muslim University in North India in imparting quality modern education to youths of the country’s minority section was supposed to be emulated in other states by setting up AMU campuses in Kerala, Maharashtra, Assam, Bihar and West Bengal.” He continued, “While the Left government of Kerala and West Bengal came forward to establish the centres in their respective states, Maharashtra and Assam relented the proposal. The campus in West Bengal was set up at Murshidabad, a district of historical importance, with its nearest railhead at Jangipur. The university aimed to cater to the students of madrasas and the general boards alike.”

Salim rued that now both the Modi Government in New Delhi and the Mamata Banerjee-led state government are not taking an interest in running that campus. He added that the Left Front would continuously raise the issue of non-funding of AMU’s second campus.

Speaking on the issue, Students Federation of India (SFI) state secretary Srijan Bhattacharya alleged that the Trinamool Congress-led West Bengal government is secretly pursuing the open agenda of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).

SFI state president Pratikur Rehman added that the AMU contributed to India’s intellectual capacity for over 100 years. “Destabilising its second campus can only be done by those aligned with the RSS, which deliberately wants the minority section students to be out of the educational arena. They are in denial of the secular ethos of the country,” he claimed.

Rahman further said, “To deal a blow to the aspirations of the minority section students, steps like cancellation of the Maulana Abul
Kalam Azad scholarships have been taken. In a short period, the number of RSS-affiliated schools has spiked, but the second campus of the AMU is staring at future closure without funds. The TMC and the RSS have a unified agenda to exclude the secular section of society from the scope of higher education.”

Speaking to NewsClick, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, Congress leader and Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha, said that he has repeatedly tried to get the attention of New Delhi to the condition of the AMU campus in West Bengal but without success. He added that both the Centre and the state government are to be equally blamed for it; the TMC government has not brought the condition of the AMU second campus into its agenda ever. Chowdhury’s Parliament constituency is Murshidabad, which is next to Jangipur, where the AMU campus is located. He said that Murshidabad, a district of 82 lakhs people, and the minority population of adjoining Malda and Birbhum districts would substantially benefit if the full-fledged campus starts operating.

“Muslims are used as only vote banks, and after the election, the parties just overlook us,” said Imam Shafique Kasmi, imam of Nakhoda Masjid. He said that the education of minority youths of the state is of paramount importance and the condition of the AMU second campus reveals a parody of PM Narendra Modi’s call of “Sabka Sath Sabka Vikash”. “If funds are not given, it will then be a loss for the entire country,” he said while talking to NewsClick.

NewsClick also spoke with MD Gholam Rabbani, Minority Affairs Minister under the West Bengal government, who refuted the allegation that the state is not paying heed to the demands of the AMU second campus in Murshidabad. He said that over Rs 1 lakh crore of state funds are pending with the Centre and the TMC MPs and MLAs are busy asking for it. He gave assurance that the demands of the second campus will be raised by the TMC legislators in future in the state Assembly, and added that his party is against all who are depriving the people of Bengal of their rights.

Courtesy: Newsclick

The post No Central Funds, Aligarh Muslim University’s Second Campus in West Bengal Faces Uncertain Future appeared first on SabrangIndia.

In a significant decision for Dr. Kafeel Khan who has been under the Uttar Pradesh government scanner for years now, the Allahabad High Court had cleared him of all criminal charges for his speech against the Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019 (CAA). The bench of Justice Gautam Chaudhary quashed the entire criminal proceedings initiated against Dr Khan after he delivered a speech at Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) during an anti-CAA protest in December 2019.

The court has also set aside the cognisance order of the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Aligarh. The FIR was registered against him under sections 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion etc.), 153B (imputations, assertions prejudicial to national integration) and 505(2) (statements creating or promoting enmity, hatred or ill will between classes) of IPC stating that his speech had disrupted harmony between communities. The chargesheet in this case filed in March 2020.

It is pertinent to note that on the basis of the same speech, he was also detained under the National Security Act (NSA), the order that was quashed by the Allahabad High Court allowing Dr. Khan to reunite with his family after seven months of incarceration.

Arguments

The primary argument raised by Dr. Khan’s counsel was that no prior sanction of the central or state government or the District Magistrate was taken before registering the FIR under sections 153A, 153B and 505(2) of IPC which is a requirement under section 196 of CrPC. The section 196 of CrPC states that no court shall take cognisance of these offences except with the previous sanction of the Central Government or of the State Government or of the District Magistrate.

The court’s findings

The court cited Jharkhand High Court’s decision in Swaraj Thackeray vs. State of Jharkhand & ors 2008 CRL L.J. 3780 as well as Madhya Pradesh High Court’s decision in Sarfaraz Sheikh vs. the State of Madhya Pradesh and observed that, “before taking cognizance of the offence under IPC, prior prosecution sanction has not been taken by the central government or the state government or the District Magistrate and the learned Magistrate did not properly comply with the relevant provisions while passing the order of cognizance”.

On this basis alone, the court allowed the application and criminal proceedings against Dr Khan were quashed, while remanding the matter back to the Chief Judicial Magistrate Court, Aligarh. The court directed the Judicial Magistrate court to take cognisance of the charges against Dr Khan only after obtaining prior sanction of the appropriate authorities i.e., central government or the state government or the District Magistrate.

The high Court order may be read here:

Kafeel Khan’s tryst with the criminal justice system

In August 2017, Khan was charged for negligence, corruption and dereliction of duty as more than 60 children died in Gorakhpur’s BRD Medical College due to oxygen shortage.

He was arrested on September 2, 2017 and remained in jail until his bail in April 2018.

A departmental inquiry had absolved him of all charges and after spending seven months in jail, he was granted bail by Allahabad High Court on April 25, 2018. Dr. Kafeel Khan, the head of the encephalitis ward in the hospital, managed to save many lives and the parents in the hospital said that had it not been for his work, the number of deaths could have been higher.

On May 10, 2019, a division bench of Supreme Court comprising Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice Indira Banerjee ordered the enquiry regarding suspension of Dr. Kafeel Khan to be concluded timely and directed UP government to pay all subsistence allowances payable to Dr. Khan pending his suspension.

Dr. Khan was detained in Mumbai in January, 2020 for an allegedly provocative speech at the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) amidst the anti-CAA protests on December 13, 2019.

On September 1, 2020, a Division Bench of Chief Justice Govind Mathur and Justice Saumitra Dayal Singh of the Allahabad High Court had revoked the NSA charges against Dr. Khan, who was lodged in the Mathura jail and the extension of his detention period was also declared illegal.

Around midnight on September 2, 2020 Dr Khan was released from detention.

In December 2020, the Supreme Court upheld the Allahabad High Court’s order quashing his detention under NSA.

On August 6, 2021 the Uttar Pradesh Government informed the Allahabad High Court that it has decided to withdraw the re-enquiry against Khan which was started on February 24, 2020. This is the second inquiry- after an earlier one gave Dr. Khan, a clean chit.

On August 13, the state government informed the high court that an independent disciplinary proceeding was initiated against him in another matter and an order of suspension was separately passed on it, which continues to hold. The next hearing in this case is August 31, 2021.

Related:

Dr. Kafeel Khan moves Allahabad HC, seeks quashing of criminal case
Supreme Court upholds Allahabad HC’s order quashing Dr. Kafeel Khan’s detention
Kafeel Khan’s speech does not disclose any effort to promote hatred or violence: Allahabad HC
A 2020 report on Victims of Vilification: Anti-CAA protesters in Uttar Pradesh 

The post Allahabad HC quashes case against Dr Kafeel Khan for anti-CAA speech appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Dr. Azeem Malik, Chief Medical Officer of Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College (JNMC) at Aligarh Muslim University, who had earlier this month claimed that the FSL report in the Hathras woman’s case “holds no value”, was asked on October 20 “not to perform any further duties”. His colleague Dr. Obaid Haque who had attested the Hathras victim’s medico legal case report was issued a similar letter. According to the The Wire, it was on October 16 that Dr. Azeem received a letter saying that the proposal to appoint him as temporary CMO at the JNMCH could not be acceded to. Then, on October 20, he was given an urgent notice terminating him from his post at the hospital along with Dr. Haque.

On October 20, both doctors received letters signed by the Chief Medical Officer in-charge Dr. S.A.H. Zaidi which stated: “This is to inform you that as directed by the Hon’ble Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Tariq Mansoor via telephone on 20.10.2020 at 11:14 am, your appointment on the post of Medical Officer, Emergency & Trauma, JNMCH, is rejected with immediate effect. Therefore, you are requested not to perform any further duties.”

On October 5, Dr. Azeem Malik had told the Indian Express that, “The samples were collected 11 days after the woman was allegedly raped, while government guidelines strictly say forensic evidence can only be found up to 96 hours after the incident. This report can’t confirm rape in this incident.”  The victim had been admitted to JNMC Hospital for her treatment for 14 days before being shifted to Safdarjung hospital in Delhi a day before her death.

This statement stood directly in contravention with Mr. Prashant Kumar’s (Additional Director General, Uttar Pradesh- Law and Order) statement that said the FSL report of the victim suggested there were no traces of sperm and hence she was not raped.

When the AMU administration was contacted by The Indian Express, they said, “The administration has not suspended any doctor related to Hathras incident. Two months back, there were vacancies because existing CMOs took leave. Few of them were infected with Covid. There was an emergency and the two doctors -Dr Malik and Dr Haque were only appointed to fill the leave vacancies. Now that the CMOs are back, there are no leave vacancies, hence their services are not required.” Later they issued another statement saying “It has come to our notice that the doctors aren’t happy with the decision. We are looking into their grievances and they might be adjusted somewhere else in the hospital.”

The Wire also reported that the Chief Medical Superintendent of the hospital, Shahid Siddiqui, according to Dr. Azeem, had been “scolded” by the VC the day after his statement had come out in the press. “The VC had called the principal, and scolded him. We had got an indication that day that we will have to face the wrath in some form. There was nothing wrong in giving statements to the press. Ask any doctor, they will say the same thing as me. But it is happening probably because it made headlines,” he said. 

Dr. Obaid Haque while talking to The Indian Express said, “I was last paid in August. We were hired because our seniors weren’t well. That time, we were told to join immediately. I did my Master’s in surgery from AMU and graduated this year. I worked during the pandemic and risked my life and now they have terminated us because Dr Malik spoke to the media and they think that I leaked information. I am still not sure why I am being targeted. Three days ago, I came to know that my appointment will be rejected. We still don’t have a written statement from the Vice-Chancellor about this… This is sad, we didn’t do anything wrong.” Dr Malik, when contacted, also said he wasn’t given last month’s salary and was “scolded” by his seniors because he had given his “personal opinion” to the media.

He informed Indian Express that, “Earlier I was scolded but they didn’t do anything. Late in September, I had filed my application for an extension, but they have rejected it a month later. We have been terminated and they have not given us any reason.”

The Wire contacted AMU vice-chancellor Tariq Mansoor about the termination of Dr Azeem and Dr. Obaid’s services and received a response on his behalf from the AMU spokesperson Shafey Kidwai. Contesting the claim that Azeem has been sacked for his statement in the press, Mr. Kidwai said, “Dr Azeem has been working on leave vacancy whose term expired on October 8, hence question of termination of his service does not arise. Casual Medical officer is group one service and temporary appointment cannot be made since there were many Covid patients. Now with improved situation the ad hoc appointment of two more doctors, Dr. Obaid and Dr. Faheem, were not approved.  It is [a] pure administrative decision [that has] nothing to do with the Indian Express interview.”

On October 21, 2020 the Resident Doctor’s Association of JNMCH issued an urgent notice to the VC of Aligarh Muslim University condemning the termination of the two doctors demanding the hospital authorities to the order immediately to protect the rights of doctors. The notice stated, “We have strong reasons to believe that that this is a decision influenced by vendetta politics aimed to suppress independent voices. If their suspension is not revoked within 24 hours, RDA will convene a GBM and will utilize its democratic rights to safeguard the interests of the doctor’s fraternity.” 

Source: Twitter (Mojo Story)

This suspension notice comes a day after the team of Central Bureau of Investigation visited the Aligarh Hospital with respect to the Hathras atrocity. The 19-year-old Dalit girl was admitted at JNMCH on September 14 and 8 days later on September 22, her statement was recorded where she named the 4 upper caste men who had raped and attacked her. She passed away on September 29 at Safdarjung Hospital Delhi.  

The letters can be seen here:

Related:

We are ‘the others’: No justice in Hathras case, 236 Valmikis convert to Buddhism
Hathras case: SC reserves order on transfer of case outside UP
CJP moves Supreme Court in Hathras case

The post Hathras case: Two doctors who questioned the FSL Reports, scolded by senior doctors and later sacked by AMU appeared first on SabrangIndia.

After the news of the sacking of two doctors of Aligarh Muslim University’s (AMU) Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College and Hospital, allegedly because they spoke to the media about the investigations into the hathras rape case, university officials may be in damage control mode. The official line adopted by the AMU authorities is that the two doctors were engaged “on a temporary one-month vacancy” and their removal was routine. However, if the doctors were appointed for a month since September 9, the authorities have not explained why they remained in the appointment way past October 9, when it should have automatically terminated.

According to a report in The Hindu, the sacked medic, Dr. Mohammad Azimuddin Malik said he and his colleague Dr. Obaid Imtiyazul Haque’s services as casualty medical officers were terminated by Vice-Chancellor Tariq Mansoor on Tuesday October 20. According to the news report the termination letter signed by CMO-in-charge S.A.H. Zaidi said the V-C had “rejected” their appointment to the post of medical officer, emergency and trauma, with immediate effect.

According to NDTV the two who questioned FSL ‘no rape’ claim in the Hathras rape and murder case were removed from post in AMU medical college soon after a 

Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) team’s visit. However,the AMU authorities have denied the allegations as “highly speculative” and said the two doctors were engaged “on a temporary one-month vacancy from September 9”.

Dr Malik told the media that they “understand that ours is a temporary job against leave vacancy, which is renewed every month. My month ended on October 10. Since then I have been made to understand by seniors that I am supposed to continue. I have been signing on medico-legal cases. If I have been removed with immediate effect, who is going to appear in the cases of the last 10 days?” 

In the Hathras case, after the Uttar Pradesh administration, Police denied that the woman was raped, and quoted a forensic report stating there were no traces of sperm in the victim’s body. Dr Malik had countered that. According to a report in The Hindustan Times, he  had said that medical tests were conducted too late to conclude that the woman had not been raped. He also questioned the gap between the date of the crime, September 14, and the date the tests were conducted, September 22. The forensic science laboratory had received the samples on September 25. 

Dr. Malik is quoted by the news report saying that after his opinion on the forensic lab report in the rape-murder case was published, he was asked to give a written explanation. “I refused to give any statement but when a journalist asked my personal opinion, I told her that chances of getting an important finding is more if the sample is collected within four days of the incident than when it’s collected after 11 days,” he said in the letter. 

He alleged that he and Dr. Haque were being targeted because they spoke to the media. The Hindu reports quote him as stating that he had learnt that their in-charge was also called and reprimanded by the V-C and added that said the newspaper even wrongly mentioned his designation as “Chief Medical Officer”. “There is no such post in JNMCH. There are 11casualty medical officers and there is one in-charge,” said Dr. Malik, an ophthalmologist.

Meanwhile the AMU spokesperson Shafey Kidwai told the media that the V-C was reconsidering the decision, and if the CMO in-charge asked for an extension of their services, it would be taken up. Professor Kidwai called it “It is a routine affair. Their services are temporary so there is no question of termination or suspension.” He added that the doctors were appointed when the cases of Covid-19 were increasing, against leave vacancy, “Now that the pressure has eased and some of the regular doctors have resumed duties, their services might not be required. It has nothing to do with the Hathras probe”. 

While such ‘reconsiderations’ are usually afterthoughts, support for the two doctor is coming in from medics across the country

AMU VC terminated two doctors who allegedly expressed their views to media persons on samples of #Hathras rape victim. Once again drs are made scapegoats for gross mismanagement & incompetence of UP govt & police. We demand immediate revocation of their termination. pic.twitter.com/uooIY3O06t

— Harjit Singh Bhatti (@DrHarjitBhatti) October 21, 2020

Hamza Malik, president, Resident Doctors’ Association, demanded that the two doctors should be “reinstated within 24 hours” or else the RDA would take a “big decision”. “We have been assured over the phone that they will be reinstated, but we would not relent until we get it in writing,” he told the media and the RDA issued this statement:.

In a related development, stated news reports, the CBI team quizzed the JNMCH doctors who treated the rape-murder victim, on Monday. They also questioned the four accused in the Hathras case at Aligarh Jail.

Related:

We are ‘the others’: No justice in Hathras case, 236 Valmikis convert to Buddhism
UP Police now claim that Hathras Dalit victim was not raped!
No dignity even in death for Dalits
Hathras case: SC reserves order on transfer of case outside UP
India’s rural population assembles to complete last rites of Hathras victim

The post AMU doctor who challenged UP police’s ‘no rape’ theory sacked! appeared first on SabrangIndia.

For the second time this year, the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) has officialy anounced that it will not hold the Eid-ul-Adha prayers on August 1. According to the statement on the AMU website, no Eid Prayers will be offered in any mosque under the university’s control, including the Jama Masjid. 

This is the second such cancellation even as the next phase of unlocking has been announced. According to AMU’s official announcement, this is due to the Covid-19 pandemic situation. The website states that Prof Mohammad Saleem (Nazim-e-Deeniyat, AMU) has “urged the University employees and not to collect in groups and to offer the Eid prayers at home, according to the guidelines issued in view of the coronavirus outbreak.”

The AMU Vice-Chancellor, Prof Tariq Mansoor conveyed “warm wishes to all members of AMU faculty, alumni, students and citizens of the country on this occasion and urged them to make contributions to help the marginalised.” He too urged, all concerned, to “follow the guidelines issued by the public health authorities.”

The university had earlier cancelled  Eid-ul-Fitr prayers in May this year. Then the AMU’s Nazim-e-Deeniyat (Theology), Prof Mohammad Saleem, Nazim-e-Deeniyat, had said “Eid-ul-Fitr prayers are not compulsory and in a situation created by a health threat, people can perform alternative prayers prescribed in Islamic principles.”

The traditional celebration, Eid Milan at the Vice Chancellor’s residence on this occasion was also cancelled due to Covid-19.

The Uttar Pradesh government has already issued guidelines for the upcoming Bakrid a few days ago. No  public gathering to offer namaz are allowed, and according to some reports there is also a “ban on the transportation of goat meat and animal slaughter in the open. Section 144 will continue to be in place at mosques along with other religious places.”

According to the Times of India, this advisory was issued by the state police chief on July 24 to the police commissioners of Lucknow and GB. It was stated that “drone cameras should be used to keep a watch on areas with thick populations.”

In Telangana Eid-ul-Adha congregations have been banned in Eidgahs but prayers will be allowed in mosques with certain restrictions, said media reports. The Telangana State Wakf Board announced that only 50 people will be allowed to offer prayers at each mosque, and they too must follow social distancing norms and other Covid-19 protocols. According to a news report, the Wakf Board even suggested that in case there are more worshippers at a mosque, the prayers may be held twice. 

Siasat news portal reported that these guidelines have also banned handshakes and hugs. The guidelines also recommend “setting up sheep markets at city outskirts and asked Muslims to avoid converging to buy sheep for ritual sacrifice.” and slaughtering of animals in public spaces, including streets is strictly prohibited. The news report added that the city landmarks of Makkah Masjid and the Shahi Masjid, will remain closed for the public on Eid-ul-Adha.

According to a report in The Wire, the Maharashtra government has asked the Muslim community in the state to celebrate Eid in “a simple manner”. As per a report in the National Herald, all religious programmes are banned, and people have been asked to offer namaz at home and not in the mosques and Eidgahs.

The Wire added that, “people across the state have also been asked to buy goats or sheep for sacrifice either online or over the phone as markets, such as the one in Deonar in Mumbai that people usually throng to buy and sell sacrificial animals, have been shut due to the pandemic. The government’s guidelines said “qurbani” and the Bakrid celebrations should be symbolic this year.”

In Madhya Pradesh, Aaj Tak reported that the Shivraj Singh Chauhan government extended the lockdown for ten days, including on Bakrid. Here too offering prayers in public places is banned and traditional livestock markets are shut.

The Bangalore Mirror has reported similar guidelines from Karnataka’s BJP government. The government’s order said handshakes and traditional hugging after the prayers won’t be allowed and each person must bring their own prayer mat to the mosques which will allow only 50 worshipers.

The Wire quotes a PTI report from Gujarat where Ahmedabad and Surat police have prohibited animal sacrifice in public places, as well private places if it is visible to the public. According to the report “the commissioners’ notifications said that such sacrifices ‘would hurt sentiments of people of other faiths and it would disrupt communal harmony’.

Related:

Bakrid and the forced controversy around animal sacrifice
Ram Mandir bhoomi-poojan: Why August 5?
Lalbaugcha Raja Ganeshotsav cancelled in wake of Covid-19 pandemic

The post No Eid-ul-Adha prayers at AMU, other states list Dos and Dont’s appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Close on the heels of what can only be called the biggest ‘lockup students and activists during national lockdown’ project spearheaded by Delhi Police, now two Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) students, have been arrested, in the same manner. The students identified as Farhan Zuberi and Ravish Ali Khan were arrested on Thursday.

The two have been arrested allegedly for their participation in the democratic protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) that began in the winter of 2019. Ravish, who was arrested around 12 pm, was released by the local police, but Farhan was sent to jail in Aligarh, The Quint reported.

These arrests are the latest additions in what seems like an arrest-roster that is being filled up with students and activists who had been participating in peaceful protests voicing their dissent against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). Most of these arrests have taken place after the national lockdown was announced once the Covid-19 pandemic began to spread across the country.

India is now in the fourth phase of the lockdown and social distancing is a key rule that has been put in place to help slow down the spread of the Coronavirus. This has resulted in the suspension of all mass gatherings across the city. These arrests are taking place at a time when it is impossible to protest, or gather in solidarity with the victims. 

Farhan is a final year student of Masters in Social Work, while Ravish is pursuing a Bachelor’s degree in the same course, stated The Quint. According to the report Farhan has “10-11 charges against him for taking part in anti-CAA protests in December”.

The two were out for some personal work and were intercepted at an area called Madrak by plain clothes policemen. The Quint quotes Ravish as saying they were stopped forcefully:

“We were driving fast, the police stopped our car and threw the barricade towards our car in such a way that the side-view mirror fell and hit on my hand. I have got injuries but none very serious.”

Ravish was released after nearly six hours spent at the police station as he had to no charges against him, but Farhan, who was a known face during the protests and was also a part of the AMU coordination committee, was sent to  jail and charged with of Attempt to Murder, and Sedition. Ravish told the journalist that he was scared the police would charge him too as he had also been active in the anti-CAA protest. According to the news report, he has been charged under the sections of the Indian Penal Code which range from Section 307 — Attempt to murder; Section 124A — Sedition; Section 153A — Promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence  to Section 188 — Disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant; Section 353 — Assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty;  Section  504 — Intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace; as well as Section 506 — criminal intimidation, Section  147 — rioting and Section  336 — Act endangering life or personal safety of others.

Most students and activists arrested in Delhi have also been charged under similar sections, most of them are Muslims, and were active in the anti-CAA protest demonstrations, which started in Delhi and soon became nationwide. Most of those arrested were first called for questioning by the special cell, and later placed under arrest. Many of them continue to be behind bars even as the Covid-19 pandemic rages on in the national capital. 

However, one of them was granted bail by a Delhi court on Thursday. According to a PTI report, Jamia Millia Islamia student Asif Iqbal Tanha, was granted bail in a case related to violence near the university during protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act in December 2019. The PTI stated that Additional Sessions Judge Gaurav Rao granted the relief to Tanha on furnishing a bail bond of Rs 25,000 and a surety of the same amount. The court had noted that eight out of 10 accused in the case were on bail. It also considered that 24-year-old Tanha, was a student and had “clean antecedents”. It granted bail “on the ground of parity and most importantly considering the present situation arising out of Covid, accused is admitted to bail.” 

Though some others were granted bail in one FIR, but then re-arrested in another as was reported by SabrangIndia earlier. The most recent has been the case of two women activists  Devangana Kalita and Natasha Narwal, leaders of the feminist rights group Pinjra Tod, who are  students of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) and who were arrested taking part in anti-Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) protests in the capital, then granted bail but rearrested by the Delhi Crime Branch immediately. This time they have been charged with murder and attempt to murder.

It should also be remembered that the pregnant student activist Safoora Zargar, had been denied bail, and her Judicial custody was extended till June 25. Safoora, a scholar in the sociology department of the prestigious Jamia Millia Islamia university Safoora who was arrested by the special cell of the Delhi police on April 10. Sabrang had in multiple reports highlighted that she is in the second trimester of her first pregnancy, and has been lodged behind prison bars for well over a month, in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic. Inmates, and staff, at the overcrowded jails are extremely vulnerable to being exposed to Coronavirus. And pregnant women have been classified as being amongst the most vulnerable. 

Other scholars and human rights defenders currently in jail, and many charged under various IPC provisions, as well as the dreaded Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) include:  Gulfisha Fatima, Khalid Saifi, Meeran Haider, Shifa ur Rehman and Sharjeel Imam. Delhi Police has also seized the mobile phone of former DU student, human rights defender and lawyer Kawalpreet Kaur.

Related:

https://sabrangindia.in/article/student-activist-safoora-zargar-denied-bail-judicial-custody-extended-till-june-25
https://sabrangindia.in/article/bail-one-case-custody-another-two-pinjra-tod-activists
https://sabrangindia.in/article/eight-political-parties-condemn-arrests-students-and-activists-letter-president
https://sabrangindia.in/article/free-safoora-indians-hold-car-rally-canada-solidarity-student-activist

The post Attack on anti-CAA activists continue, Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) students arrested appeared first on SabrangIndia.