Raja Ram Yadav was appointed the vice-chancellor of Veer Bahadur Singh Purvanchal University in Jaunpur last year.
New Delhi: Caught on camera purportedly exhorting students to commit murder, Raja Ram Yadav, the vice-chancellor of a state university in Uttar Pradesh, is a geophysicist who has spent nearly four decades in academia.
Yadav, 61, an MSc topper from Allahabad University, was appointed the vice-chancellor of Veer Bahadur Singh Purvanchal University in Jaunpur last year. He came under scrutiny over the weekend after he allegedly made deeply controversial remarks in his address to students at an affiliated college in Ghazipur.
A video from the event, held Saturday, shows Yadav purportedly saying that students should not come crying to him if they get into a fight, and should instead beat up the other person, or murder them if possible. “We’ll take care of it later,” he added.
Delivered in Hindi, his exact quote runs thus: “Agar aap Purvanchal University ke chhatra ho to rote huye me… mere paas kabhi mat aanaa. Ek baat bata detaa hoon… Agar kisi se jhagda ho jaaye to uski pitaai karke aana, aur tumhara bas chale to uska murder karke aana, uske baad hum dekh lenge.”
With the video triggering calls for the vice-chancellor’s removal, the Uttar Pradesh government has asked Yadav to explain his remarks.
UP Minister Sidharth Nath Singh on Purvanchal VC's statement: It was wrong, he can’t make such comments. He should teach students the way of peace but he’s doing ‘gunda raj’, VC of such mentality has no right to stay in his position. I hope Deputy CM will take appropriate action. pic.twitter.com/MKGKTjlofY
— ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) December 30, 2018
Definitely not the language of a teacher. I strongly oppose this.https://t.co/E98Rga7Ccl
— Prof. Abhishek Mishra (@profamishra) December 31, 2018
According to a report in Hindustan Times, Yadav blamed the media for “distorting” his statement in a clarification issued in the wake of the controversy.
“My statement was intended at motivating students and boosting their confidence. I also tried to inculcate zeal and encouraged them towards their goals. Fighting for one’s right, if he is correct, is not wrong. He should not pull back,” the report quoted him as saying.
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A long career
Yadav’s stint with Veer Bahadur Singh Purvanchal University follows a long and distinguished career in education.
An alumnus of Allahabad University, the Bundelkhand native was named the topper when he completed his MSc in physics in 1979. He went on to secure a junior research fellowship, and pursued his PhD at the university while serving a five-year stint with Oil & Natural Gas Commission as a geophysicist between 1983 and 1988.
Yadav has spent most of his career teaching at Allahabad University, where he started as a junior research fellow and eventually became a professor.
In 2010, he was awarded the UP government’s Prayag Gaurav Samman for his contribution to the field of education. He is the author of 117 published research papers — two of them won the “Best Research Paper award” given out by the Acoustical Society of America, a US-based society for studies in the subject, in 2004 and 2010.
He has been a visiting fellow at the Roorkee and Kharagpur branches of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), and engaged in several projects sponsored by the Centre’s Department of Science and Technology (DST) and the University Grants Commission (UGC).
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The problem is, there is such an atmosphere of lawlessness in UP that someone who is eager to please the government wouldn’t know where to draw the line. So you cannot really blame this VC. Poor guy might have thought that this comment will ingratiate him to the authorities! It has always been risky to be a fool!