Irani said AMU Kerala centres were illegal: V-C

Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) vice-chancellor (V-C) Lt Gen (Retd) Zameer Uddin Shah on Thursday said HRD Minister Smriti Irani had in a meeting with Kerala CM Oommen Chandy on January 9 said AMU centres in Kerala, West Bengal and Bihar were illegally set up and will not be funded by her ministry.

After reports that Irani insulted Shah at the meeting held in her office with Chandy, the AMU V-C has issued a statement seeking to clear the air over the controversy.

“It would take a lot to humiliate a veteran of the Longewala Battle of 1971, who spent the better part of his 40 years in the Army fighting insurgencies in Punjab and North- East India and dousing communal passions in various riots. There have been reports in press and social media about a meeting with HRD Minister on January 9. It is regrettable that these leaked reports are meant to create controversy and tarnish AMU’s image,” he said in the statement.

He said he had on January 9 gone to meet Irani at Chandy’s insistence regarding the funding of an off-campus AMU centre in Kerala and since the venue of the meeting was changed at the eleventh hour, he could not reach there on time.