BHU prof who faced protests joins Arts faculty

Tribune News Service
Lucknow, December 10

A Muslim assistant professor who faced protests for having joined Banaras Hindu University’s Sanskrit department resigned from his position, sources in the university said on Tuesday. 

Firoz Khan, whose appointment to BHU’s Sanskrit Vidya Dharm Vigyan (SVDV) spurred protests that centred on his religion, has chosen to join the Sanskrit department at the university’s Arts faculty instead, PTI quoted Sanskrit Vidya Dharma Vigyan's Dean Bindeswari Prasad Mishra as having said.

Students of SVDV held vehement protests against Khan’s appointment to that department last month, boycotting classes and staging a dharna outside the vice-chancellor's office. They also threatened a fast unto death on Monday.

Right-wing organisation Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh's student wing Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad has been leading the protests.

The students have been insisting on a Hindu professor, saying Khan was "free to teach Sanskrit language elsewhere". Their protests were supported by retired professors of the university.

The university however has insisted that the appointment had been done through an established selection procedure and that Khan was the best qualified among the candidates it had interviewed.

 A frustrated Khan had even appeared for an interview on Friday in the university's Ayurveda department. The interview was held in secrecy in a guest house in view of the fear of protests by students. Ten candidates, including Khan, were to appear for the interview but only eight turned up.

Ayurveda department dean Yamini Bhushan told reporters that Khan had ranked at the top of the merit list.

Khan had earlier applied for the job in the Ayurveda and Arts faculties, along with the Sanskrit faculty.

The protests had also drawn criticism, with critics calling them open bigotry, but the students remained undeterred.  With agencies