New Delhi: The Election Commission (EC) has given a go-ahead to the Modi government to appoint vice-chancellors to three central universities, saying the move won’t amount to a poll violation.
The Human Resource Development (HRD) ministry is looking to appoint VCs to Jamia Millia Islamia (Delhi), Mahatma Gandhi Central University (Motihari, Bihar) and Mahatma Gandhi Antarrashtriya Hindi Vishwavidyalaya (Wardha, Maharashtra).
The ministry will now send the names to the President, who is the visitor of the central universities, for approval.
“We had sent a letter to the Election Commission asking for their approval and they have informed us that it is a procedural issue and we can go ahead with it. We will be sending it to the President for a final approval,” said a senior HRD official who didn’t wish to be named.
The ministry will send the names of the three shortlisted candidates for the top job at Jamia, after its chief Talat Ahmad quit as VC last year, said the official.
Najma Akhtar of National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration is the top contender for the post. Furqan Qamar, secretary-general of Association of Indian Universities, and S.M. Ishtiaque, a professor at Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, are the others competing for the spot.
If Akhtar is appointed, she will be the first woman to hold the top job at Jamia Millia Islamia.
The list of shortlisted candidates for the other two central universities will also be sent to the President, added the official. However, details of these candidates were not immediately available.
Also read: Sackings, inquiries, forced leave: Central university V-Cs face the force of Modi govt
Objection to appointments
Earlier on Tuesday, Delhi education minister Manish Sisodia had asked the EC to not permit appointments to Delhi University colleges funded by the state government while the model code of conduct is in effect.
He made the appeal in a letter to Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora, a day after the HRD ministry sought the poll panel’s nod to conduct hiring for central universities despite the poll code, citing the delay suffered on account of the quota formula imbroglio.
In the letter, Sisodia pointed to the fact that several colleges currently don’t have governing bodies, the college-specific groups that handle matters related to appointments and are mandated to include representatives of the city-state’s elected government (currently, led by the Aam Aadmi Party) as well as the respective institute.
On 8 March, two days before the model code of conduct kicked in, the Modi government had appointed Hasmukh Adhia, former finance secretary and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s yoga mentor, the chancellor of the Central University of Gujarat.
The appointment order was issued by the President in his capacity as visitor of the central university. Adhia’s name was proposed by the HRD ministry on 6 March.
Also read: Vice-chancellor of a central university accused of faking German PhD, HRD seeks answers
The image used with this article claimed to be of the M. Gandhi Central University Motihari Library is incorrect.
That majestic building belongs to the IIT Roorkee campus and is called the Mahatma Gandhi Central Library.
Please correct the same. Now your little mistake is showing in the Google search results as well.
Please, get the leftists out from the University leadership positions. They have hijacked the system.
And who instead of them? These people have academic credentials even if their political ideology is not acceptable to the current dispensation.
We have seen the appointments of the current government.