By IndiaTomorrow.net,
New Delhi, 17 Jan 2015: More than half a dozen academicians and eminent social activists have urged President of India Pranab Mukherjee to ask Union Ministry of HRD to remove a Muzaffarnagar riot accused Lok Sabha MP from the Aligarh Muslim University Court – the highest decision making body of the central university. President is Visitor of all central universities in the country.
Two days back the Human Resource Development Ministry communicated to the varsity that six Lok Sabha MPs, including Kunwar Bharatendra, BJP MP from Bijnor, had been elected to the AMU Court. Bharatendra was one of three lawmakers who are among the accused in the 2013 Muzaffarnagar riot case. He was also charge sheeted in the case.
“His appointment as a member of Court in a noble seat of learning is going to spell the dubious role of governance at large and is not proper for sane and sorted set up of this great nation,” said the academicians in a joint letter to the President.
“AMU is not only a seat of learning like many other universities but it is also an institution of national historical heritage and of national repute. Its alumnus has always brought laurels to the honour of the nation. We, as Academicians and members of the Civil Society sincerely believe that the appointment of these people to the top decision making body i.e the AMU Court is not a fair play. The officers sitting at the responsible and higher posts should not use their power as tools for exercising their politics especially in an academic seat by appointing the faces to the top body not so appropriate to the citizens in general and minorities in particular,” reads the letter whose signatories include Dr Sandeep Pandey, IIT, BHU, Prof Ram Puniyani, former faculty member of IIT-Mumbai, Prof Vipin Kumar Tirpathi, former faculty member of IIT-Delhi and Dr Prem Singh, Delhi University.
Other MPs recently included in the AMU Court are Satish Kumar Gautam (Aligarh), Chaudhary Mehboob Ali Kaiser (Khagaria), Mohd Badaruddoza Khan (Murshidabad), Bhola Singh (Bulandshahr) and Rajveer Singh (Etah).
Satish Gautam, BJP MP from Aligarh, had allegedly planned to celebrate birth anniversary of AMU alumnus and freedom fighter Raja Pratap inside the AMU campus on 2nd Dec last year. But the AMU administration and students body were against it. At the last hour, a truce was reached at among them and the birthday celebration planned inside the campus was agreed to be held outside.
The academicians and social activists have urged the President to ask the HRD Ministry to revise the recent appointment.
“Finally we urge your kind intervention and request you to advise the HRD Ministry to revise their decision by placing some noted academician and experts as the court members in the place of those said gentleman so that the promising future and coming generations thereafter get benefitted by the fair and true commitment of a sincere and welfare government,” they demanded.
Other signatories to the letter are: Dr Qudusia Anjum, Parcham, Prof Rajendar Chaudhary, Rohtak, Faisal Khan, NAPM, Khudai Khidmatgar and Shahab Shabbir, Research Scholar, coordinator, Khudai Khidmatgar (AMU).
