NEW DELHI: Jamia Millia Islamia was closed indefinitely after student protests at their province chancellor’s attitude on the Salman Rushide affair took an ugly tum,
Prof. Ahktarul Wasey of the department of Islamic Studies, who had supported the PVCs stand, was stopped and assaulted by Rs-20 students while driving away on his two-wheeler after a meeting with the vice-chancellor on the ugly atmosphere on the campus. This was shortly after 7:30 p.m. On hearing this, the VC, Dr. Bashirud din Ahmed, ordered the closure.
This incident is the last straw. Something had to be done,” he said. He has convened a meeting to decide how long the university should be closed.
This climaxed a stormy day, with the student union disrupting an examination at the faculty of education trying to stop teaching activity and giving a fresh petition to the vice-chancellor to remove the VC.
As already reported, the controversy concerns the reported attitude of the PVC, Dr. Mushirul Hassan (history department) on the controversial book of Rushdie, The Satanic Verses. The book has been banned here and Rushdie has been in hiding for the last three years after a worldwide uproar among Muslims alleging it blasphemed their faith. Prof, Hassan shares the feeling on the book but believes a ban is not the best answer. He indicated as much in a recent interview to a newspaper. Its publication began the current storm, The student union wants him dismissed, at the least. The issue is not an ordinary one but is an attack on the basis of Islam, their petition said,
Two scholars in the university’s Islamic Studies department defended him after the student agitation began. One was the man assaulted, Dr, Akhtarul Wasey. His colleague, Dr.Majid Ali Khan, and he told the students they were not doing a right thing. They said they felt the ban on Rushdie’s book should not be lifted; however, Dr. Mushirul Rasan had not approved of or endorsed its contents. This being so, the students should stop hounding him and the university like this.
The storm is over a week old, the VC was actively contemplating closure, Dr. Wasey came to meet him on the campus around 7:30 p.m. because he had been getting a lot of threats from students at his home. Dr.. Waseys elderly mother, for one, was worried. The VC and he decided these things should be ignored and the don then left on his scooter for his home. When the students stopped him and pushed him around, injuries were not serious. The police are on the campus since the current spell began but the don told them not to intervene. He reported the matter to the VC, who decided enough, was enough,
Several eminent teachers of Jawaharlal Nehru University gave a joint statement, decrying the student’s agitation, It had challenged, they noted, the basic right of a faculty member to hold and express his view.
Article extracted from this publication >> May 15, 1992
