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- Union HRD Minister, Prakash Javadekar has cleared the air by officially announcing that the GoI has no plans to drop Hindu and Muslim from AMU, BHU names.
- Students and teachers at both AMU and BHU are against the suggestion made by the UGC audit committee.
Recently, the committee that audited a number of central universities of the country as per the instructions of the University Grants Commission suggested the removal of 'Muslim' from AMU and 'Hindu' from BHU. The committee’s suggestion indicated that the names of these universities do not indicate the secular nature/ character and hence must be modified.
However, Mr. Prakash Javadekar (HRD Minister) clarified that the government does not have any plan or idea to change the names of Aligarh Muslim University and Banaras Hindu University. The responsibility of the UGC audit committee is to look into administrative, academic and research audits of central universities. The Government of India will not take any suggestion made by the committee irrelevant to its responsibility, he said.
On the other hand, AMU fraternity termed the suggestion of AMU as a mere political move. A professor at AMU indicated that AMU is a secular university and the first graduate of AMU (Ishwari Prasad) was a non-Muslim.
A student leader indicated that they would approach court if the centre plans to change the name of AMU.
Also Read: UGC Allocates Rs. 90 Crore to Aligarh Muslim University (AMU)
In 1875, Sir Syed Ahmed Khan had founded MAO (Mohammadan Anglo-Oriental College) which was later incorporated into AMU with all its infrastructure, resources and property under the AMU Act 1920. Parliament of India passed the AMU (Amendment) Act, 1981, giving it the responsibility of empowering, educating and uplifting Indian Muslims.
Similarly, professors and students at BHU are not in favour of the suggestion made by the UGC committee. They clarified that the word ‘Hindu’ in BHU has never created problems on the campus. A Political Science professor at BHU indicated that the word ‘Hindu’ is connected with the identity of BHU while students from diverse religions & backgrounds study together. Therefore, dropping the word ‘Hindu’ from BHU is not a good idea.
Also Read: Banaras Hindu University’s (BHU) Arts & Social Sciences Faculties Turn Co-Ed
Dr. Vishwanath Pandey who is associated with rewriting BHU’s history pointed that Hindu in the name of BHU is a part of the BHU Act passed by the Parliament of India. The revision of name of BHU is technically not possible since, for that, the BHU Act will have to be amended. He further recalled that a similar attempt was made in the 1970s, which triggered national wide protest that forced the Indian government to drop the idea.
