New Delhi: The IIT Kanpur professor who filed a complaint against students last month for reciting Pakistani poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz’s poem ‘Hum Dekhenge’ has a history of writing anti-Muslim articles and tweets.
Vashi Mant Sharma, 32, who hails from Ghaziabad, has spoken out against ‘love jihad’ and suggested measures to tackle it. ‘Love jihad’ is a term coined by Hindu fundamentalist groups, referring to an alleged campaign by Muslim men to convert Hindu girls in the guise of love.
A strong proponent of cow protection or ‘gau raksha’, Sharma is associated with an organisation called Agniveer, which claims to be “working both in virtual and real world to promote Vedic Dharma and counter falsehood”.
The website describes Sharma as “a globally renowned energy scientist and an expert on Islamic terrorism and deradicalisation”.
Sharma has been teaching at IIT Kanpur since 2016, under the INSPIRE government scheme, which allows a postdoctoral fellow to teach at any Indian institute for five years.
Series of anti-Muslim articles
There are videos on the Agniveer website in which Sharma is seen explaining ‘love jihad’. In a video, Sharma is even saying that he now has “an army of good guys” who can liberate Muslim women by marrying them and get them back to the “path of dharma”.
In an article, titled ‘True Love or Paid Romeo? Litmus Test Questions‘ written by Sharma on the website, he has listed questions to “find out if your love is true or is it just a tool for a conversion agent jihadi in disguise”.
In another article, Sharma talks about the difference between Rohingya Muslims and Pakistani Hindus.
Sharma has even authored books in Hindi and English titled ‘The Naked Mughals’, ‘Exposing Zakir Naik’, ‘Indian Muslims — Children of India or Slaves of Arabs’, among others, according to the website.
Sharma’s tweets also hold proof of his anti-Muslim stance.
On 11 January 2019, Sharma had tweeted that if your daughter or sister has “stopped wearing jeans, started meditating in private…started wearing strange perfumes then she is in M trap (sic)”.
When i witnessed #jihad in my neighbourhood, happening with a close friend’s daughter, how could understand, how close @VashiMant is to the truth. Twitter makes u realize how jihad is operating but there is nothing, nothing u can do about it. https://t.co/JACzKMVpsD
— Shalini (@Shalinigoyal15) January 3, 2020
Also read: IIT Kanpur sets up panel to decide if Faiz poem ‘Hum Dekhenge’ is anti-Hindu
‘Complained because Faiz is Pakistani’
Sharma, who did his masters in mechanical engineering and then a PhD from IIT-Bombay, told ThePrint that he objected to the students reciting ‘Hum Dekhenge’ because Faiz was a Pakistani poet.
“Why did they not sing a poem by (Ramdhari Singh) Dinkar? We also have Indian rebel poets,” he said.
Sharma said it hurt his sentiments that the poem sung by the students had a line that said ‘Bas naam rahega Allah ka’ (only Allah’s name will remain) and not ‘Ram ka’.
He added that his grandfather was a freedom fighter, and that he does not subscribe to any particular ideology.
“I am not associated with the RSS or BJP in any way. I do my own research and have my opinions,” he said.
On the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, Sharma said he supports the legislation. “The number of Hindus in Pakistan after Partition has reduced from 22 per cent to 2 per cent and that’s where the need for the CAA comes,” he said.
An earlier version of this report incorrectly mentioned that Sharma condemns Dalit upliftment. The error is regretted.
Also read: Modi’s India unhappy with protesters singing Faiz’s Hum Dekhenge. Zia’s Pakistan was too
I guess you know all about how to use jugaad since you are speaking with such authority.
The print and quint trying to do character assassination of a teacher who used his free speech. Free speech pe kya bas musalmaan ka haq hai? Hai ye Hindustan me Hindu virodhi.. Kaise Hindu majority me keh doge ki saare buth(murtiyaan) uthwae jayenge, naam rahega Allah ka.. Bahut zyada communal hai ye aur agar ye pakistan me minority ne bola hota to Dange ho jaate… Prof ne to legal Sahara liya hai..
Sharma doesn’t understand even I word of Urdu, he is not willing to learn either. I have seen one Sharma in my office who isn’t willing to write Hindi… He prefers English, which is pathetic. What to say? Both are affected by one kinda bias or the other
If the protestors have right to protest, why cant the professor have right to express his opinions? If the protest is about being inclusive, y fiaz’s poem was chosen where it quotes all idols will be removed?
Please correct the headline: he is NOT a Professor (which title still carries some authority) – but only temporary faculty hired under the DST inspire programme. Fact can be checked easily by going to IIT-K website and searching for the guy by name.
Have seen his articles and blogs before, he is very logical and truthful in his observations. Agniveer countered the fake propoganda by Terror sympathizer Zakir Naik very well. Love jihad is real issue not imagination. They r real heroes of hindus of India who r crushed by secular, liberal Netas and journos
I heared his talk with ur correspondent. You are spreading misinformation as you always do. He never said he opposed brcause Faiz was Pakistani.
He is not alone in criticising Jihad, even Trump and Xin Ping feels the same. may be Shekhar Gupta feels otherwise.
Wow! What a liar this writer is!
Vashi had raised objections on the line “sab but uthwaye jaenge” and “Bas naam rahega allah ka”. It has references to iconoclasm which is unacceptable in a country like India. And the writer says that he’s hurt because Ram wasn’t used. Seriously, how do such liars sleep at night? No wonder these liberals drink so much..
“And only Allah’s name will remain” is terribly secular, is it? In trying to portray the IIT professor as a bigot, the author’s of this article have exposed their own ideological biases.
That is what this magazine believes.
Faiz was a communist. He penned this poem in defiance of Zia-ul-Haq’s islamisation of Pakistan. How is that fact so difficult for you to grasp? You need to stop drinking the Kool-Aid.
Faiz was also a minister in Pakistan govt. He didn’t write a poem when that govt made anti Ahmadiya laws. He also supported partition on religious lines and chose Pak. How is this fact so difficult for you to grasp?? He was just appeasing his electorate and gathering support. It’s you who need to stop drinking your kool-aid.
under which govt was he a minister? for how many years and the portfolio plz..
He was not a minister according to an article by Mr. Sharma, but a cultural advisor (the father Bhutto) government. He is also not an atheist. It strains my credibility that an atheist can use religious imagery? How is it different from propagating a religion? Can one propogate something he doesn’t believe in?
Very correct except that he is not a professor – he is temporary faculty.
In my openion if you check his appointment procedure, you would find that he was a JUGAD PROFESSOR. His mind is pollutted with Sanghi ideaology
Stop doing love jihad, or else one day all Muslim men who do love jihad will be shot and killed! We need a firing squad to kill and shoot Muslim men who do love jihad!
Remember, according to the Quran, Muslim men are not supposed to marry polytheist women. Therefore, Muslim men who do love jihad should be shot 100 times in the stomach.
The environment has been conducive for the growth of such characters in the last six years; the evocations of likes of Amit Shah, Aditynath, Giriraj Singh, many other BJP leaders in the Centre and states; the evocations of these Non-leaders and just Rabid Netas gave rise to their minions to come forward and breath fire.
The toxic atmosphere has given rise to landing up of some with knowledge limited to technical areas and bereft of any humanity and brotherhood into the premier institutions; these guys have vitiated the atmosphere with possible coming out of such engineers from the IITs as well.
The sane lots in the citizenry need to expose likes of Sharma so that sooner than later these guys are exposed and even expelled.
O bhai rehne de army me ration chorne ke baad ab yha b hag raha hai
Opps, It seems, someone has been court-martialled. It’s weird to see a col being frustrated when his army is hitting enemy hard under the strong leadership of PM Modi and HM Shah.
It’s the fake propaganda against the true warrior like Dr. Vashi Sharma, needs to be exposed.
He is a soldier in true sense who fought for the girls who were trapped in love jihad and reunited them with their families while risking his life without arms and ammunition and remuneration which has been enjoyed by recruited ones while abiding the law.
Wow, it’s enlightening to know that one can publish more than 20 research papers in renowned journals all over world with limited technical knowledge. Haven’t seen academicians performing so well with much knowledge.
Dr. Vashi resolved more cases of Dalit justice & compensation thru constitutional mechanisms than ANYONE ELSE last yr itself. That’s SERVICE TO HUMANITY.
U demeaned a champ of Dalit upliftment as anti-Dalit. Such cheap, vandalised journalism should be punished which puts other people’s life at risk for their vested interests.
Poor Logic by the print, what is wrong if he is a critic of jihad. It has to criticised. You cannot promote middle east based green terrorists and their ideologies