The Banaras Hindu University has been embroiled in a massive controversy. For the past fortnight, students of the Dharma Vigyan Department have been protesting against the appointment of a Muslim professor in SVDV. It seems their protest has been paid heed to. Dr Firoz Khan has now applied to the Ayurveda Department of BHU. His interview is set to be held on the 29th of November 2019.
There is no vacancy for Sanskrit teacher in the Arts Faculty’s Sanskrit department, but there is one in Ayurveda department where Dr Firoz can apply and be selected. Then, he will resign from SVDV as he has already joined through the office of VC, formally. It is seen as a move to end the whole fiasco which has escalated and reached even the PMO. At present, students are marching from Singh Dwar to Ravindra Puri‘s PMO to submit their memorandum.
On one hand, this move is seen as a personal decision of Dr Feroze Khan who might have had too much of this controversy and thinks this as the best possible way, while on the other hand, students believe this is a face-saving move by the administration to end the whole fiasco altogether.
This development comes after yesterday, the BHU SVDV students had said that they were temporarily ending their ‘dharna’ but will continue to boycott classes and examinations till the administration responds to their questions. The students had forwarded certain questions to the administration and the BHU administration, in turn, had asked for 10 days to respond. It was also reported yesterday that the Prime Minister’s Office had got involved in trying to smooth tensions.
The PMO had asked for a detailed report of the protests in BHU. At the same time, Shankaracharya had also written a letter to the PMO about the student’s demands. The students had also said while putting their dharna on pause that they are slated to meet the Prime Minister’s Office today to submit a letter of their demands.
The BHU students of the Dharma Vigyan department have been protesting the appointment of a Muslim professor, Dr Firoz Khan, in the Dharma Vigyan department. A professor of Sanskrit, Dr Khan was appointed in the theology department of BHU instead of the Arts department which teaches Sanskrit purely as a linguistic subject. In the Dharma Vigyan Department, even Sanskrit is learnt with an interpretation of theology and hence, the students were demanding that only a practising Hindu be allowed to teach them in the Dharma Vigyan department.