‘Future at stake’: India moves to demolish university Muslim leader founded
Rampur, India – More than 100 people sit cross-legged on mats, braving the brutal July heat, as they raise slogans and wave the national flag
Rampur, India – More than 100 people sit cross-legged on mats, braving the brutal July heat, as they raise slogans and wave the national flag in a north Indian town. Barely 200km (132 miles) from the capital, New Delhi, where thousands of youths demanding education reforms just forced a minister to resign, a group of students, alumni and residents are holding an indefinite sit-in to oppose the planned demolition of 38 of Mohammad Ali Jauhar University’s 40 buildings. Named after a freedom fighter who fought against British rule, the university was founded by prominent Muslim politician Azam Khan in Rampur district of Uttar Pradesh state. Khan established the Mohammad Ali Jauhar Trust in 2003, which oversaw the university’s establishment three years later. On July 15, when protests led by the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) – a youth movement born out of a joke – were at their peak, the Rampur district administration issued an order to demolish most of the university’s buildings, alleging they flouted regulatory guidelines. Only two structures, including a proposed medical college block, were built with valid approvals, the authorities claimed, as they ordered the university to take down the “illegal” buildings by August 5. If they failed to do so, the authorities said they will move in with bulldozers and recover the cost of the demolition from the university. On Monday, the state administration issued an interim stay on its order, but did not explicitly state whether the demolition was halted. Jauhar University’s vice chancellor, Zaheeruddin, told Al Jazeera the stay order does not mean the demolition has been called off. “It means that the demolition will not take place by the August 5 deadline set by the RDA. The university is now seeking a verdict that quashes the demolition order outright,” he said, using the acronym for Rampur Development Authority. ‘Stop the demolition’ For nearly 3,000 students pursuing dozens of courses at the 250-acre campus, the government move is a bolt from the blue. Since July 15, a group of university students and alumni has been sitting outside its main gate, demanding the withdrawal of the demolition order. “If a [federal] minister can be forced to resign following the CJP protest, why can’t the Uttar Pradesh government be forced to stop the demolition of the university when so many students are agitating here,” asked Usama Tayyab, who graduated from Jauhar University in 2019. Uttar Pradesh – home to about 240 million people – has been governed by the right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) since 2017. The state’s chief minister, Yogi Adityanath, is a saffron-clad hardline Hindu monk, known for his anti-Muslim hate speech and policies. Khan, the 77-year-old founder and lifelong chancellor of the university, had been one of the most stringent critics of the BJP in Uttar Pradesh. He is one of the founders of the Samajwadi Party (“samajwadi” means socialist in Hindi), a political group popular among the state’s 38 million Muslims, as well as a large majority of its underprivileged caste Hindu voters.
The BriefWire