Jamia suspends professor who said he won't pass 'non-Muslim' students for supporting CAA

The Jamia Millia Islamia University Thursday suspended an assistant professor who claimed that he had passed all his students except 15 "non-Muslim" students for supporting the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). The teacher, however, has said the tweet was "sarcastic" and "misinterpreted".

In a tweet he shared Wednesday, Assistant Professor Abrar Ahmad, who teaches electrical engineering at the university, said he will pass "all (his) students except 15 non-Muslims. I have 55 students in my favour. Majority will teach you a lesson" he said with the hashtag #CAA and #CAAsupport.

After the tweet provoked criticism on Twitter, Ahmad tweeted a clarification in the evening, "Regarding a post I wrote about an examination discrimination, it is a parody to explain #CAA and #CAAprotests on how the government is discriminating against a community. There has been no such examination and no such results. Hold your horses. It is just to explain an issue. I never discriminate," he said.

Jamia subsequently tweeted from its official handle tagging the Human Resource Development Minister saying Ahmad had been suspended pending enquiry for inciting "communal disharmony".

"Dr. Abrar Ahmad, Asstt Professor of @jmiu_official tweeted in public domain as to failing 15 non-Muslim students in an exam. This is a serious misconduct inciting communal disharmony under CCS CONDUCT RULES. The university suspends him pending inquiry," it said.

The Jamia unit of Akhil Bharatiya VidyarthI Parishad (ABVP) hit out at Ahmad for his tweet saying he had "shamed the pious profession of teaching". "A prominent university like Jamia Millia Islamia has no place for a bigoted teacher like Dr Abrar who spew the venom of communalism to poison the minds of the students dependent on him for their education," said ABVP Jamia President Shubham Rai.

Speaking to The Indian Express, Ahmad said he had been "misinterpreted". "It was a sarcastic and imaginary tweet. I wanted to say that the way the government is targeting minorities in the name of CAA, by targeting those who are protesting against it, is wrong. Just like it would be wrong if I fail the non-Muslim students in my class and persecute them if they protest against it," he said.

"In this session, exams have still not taken place, and in the previous semester I taught two M Tech classes in which all students have been passed. This was a misunderstanding. Anyway, the university had set up an enquiry so everything will become clear now," said Ahmad

(Inputs and image from theindianexpress.com)