IGNOU V-C row: Academicians ask Pranab to intervene

A number of academicians and intellectuals from universities and institutions have requested President Pranab Mukherji to intervene in the case of IGNOU vice chancellor Prof M Aslam who has been ordered by Ministry of Human Resource Development to face an inquiry and proceed on leave, on an apparently, non-substantiated and flimsy reason. 

It is for the first time that a vice-chancellor is asked to proceed on leave during inquiry and that too when there are no financial irregularities involved nor has he taken any policy decision.

The HRD Ministry has set up a committee last month under Central Gujarat University vice-chancellor C Syed Bari to review the functioning of IGNOU and look into the ‘motivated’ allegations against Aslam.  

In a signed petition to the President, the acamedicians said: “We feel greatly disturbed when we hear that a person who has sacrificed everything and is working with utmost sincerity and dedication is being subjected to a humiliation by not only instituting Inquiry but also being asked to proceed on leave. We are sure that your good self will intervene to ensure that dedicated and sincere persons are not harassed like this.

The signatories include professors from Delhi University, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Jamia Millia Islamia, Patna University, Punjab University and Indian Sociological Society.

“The initiatives by Prof Aslam is in the best interest of the institutions and go against a caucus of vested interests that has vitiated the atmosphere in the prestigious institution. While we are sure, the committee will unveil the truth, such discomfiture to a known scholar should have been avoided,” said Anand Kumar, the JNU professor and President of Indian Sociological Society. Kumar is also an active member of Aam Aadmi Party.