India, New Delhi: In the wake of JNU raw reports are coming that recently Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) Vice chanceller (VC) retd. General Zamiruddin Shah was subject to the anger of ministry of human resources and development (MHRD) following his demand for the maintenance fund for running AMU off campus centre. HRD minister Smriti Irani has directly been dealing with the Vice Chancellors of the central universities whose visitor is president of India. she is in news for his recent heated dialogue exchange with AMU VC who served in Indian Army for more than forty years and was the Deputy Chief of Army Staff.
Earlier reports have been there for the tussles of MHRD and educational institutions of the country like IITs, FIIT and JNU and various other institutions, which do not subscribe saffron cultural nationalism. News appeared in fortnightly tabloid Milli Gazette claims about the contradictory stand between AMU VC and MHRD over funding and running of the off campus centres. According to the fortnightly “when a delegation of Kerala ministers and MPs, along with Kerala Chief Minister Mr. Oommen Chandy met HRD Minister Smriti Irani in her office in Delhi on 8 January seeking her support for the AMU Centre in Malappuram which is not progressing as planned. According to a reliable source, she told them, “This centre and other AMU centres were established without any legal sanction; hence they all will be closed down.”
She added, “How you start a centre like this? What authority, the VC has to take such an action. We are not going to give money.” She went on to say, “There was no need for the AMU centres hence no grant will be sanctioned for this purpose”. The Kerala CM told her, we have allocated 345 acres of precious land in Perinthalmanna taluk of Malappuram for this purpose on the understanding that a full-fledged AMU centre will function there. “Take it back!” the HRD minister said.
While this unpleasant discussion was on between the HRD Minister and Kerala CM-led delegation, the AMU Vice Chancellor Lt. Gen (retd) Zameeruddin Shah entered the room. Irani asked him, “Why have you come?” He politely replied, “Ma’am, I have come at the invitation of the Kerala Chief Minister.” She asked him to wait, the humiliated VC made a hasty retreat while a stunned CM and his delegation looked on in utter disbelief. The HRD minister met the Kerala chief minister again at Trivandrum on 14 January. Before the second meeting, a BJP delegation had visited the AMU centre at Malappuram. During the second meeting, the HRD minister repeated what she had said in Delhi but also said, “We will not give you anything extra!”
This meant that the minister and her government have no immediate plan to close down the AMU centres, but will allow it to meet a natural death. She also refused to allow an AMU school to function at the centre. It should be noted AMU had decided in 2010 to open five off-campus centres, one each at Murshidabad, Malappuram, Kishanganj, Bhopal and Pune, under the Union budget of UPA govt. Infact those centres were part of the Union government’s scheme for the educational uplift of the Muslim community in the wake of the alarming Sachar report of 2006. Terming those AMU centers as ‘illegal’ shows the ignorant attitude of the govt, which has potentially against PM Modi’s slogan “sabka sath sabka vikas”. (sources)