OP Jindal University in Sonipat, Haryana has again found itself in the middle of a controversy after it hosted an event, brimming with anti-Hindu rhetorics and unsettling calls for the destruction of the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya.
On February 7, the Revolutionary Students’ League (R.S.L), a frontal organisation of the Communist Party of India (Maoist) organised an event at the OP Jindal Global University titled “Ram Mandir: A Farcical Project of Brahmanical Hindutva Fascism.” At the event, the left-wing students affiliated with the organisation reportedly proposed the demolition of the Ram Mandir and the construction of a mosque in its place.
The event organizers contended that the Ram Mandir concept has come to be associated with hate crimes committed against Muslims and Dalits throughout India, in addition to a larger trend of saffronization within educational institutions.
They claimed that the January 22nd ceremony, which marked the Pran Pratishtha of Ram Lalla at the grand mandir in Ayodhya, exposed what they described as the inherent brutality and anti-people nature of the ‘Brahmanical Hindutva fascist regime.’
In its event brochure, the Revolutionary Students’ League urged the attendees to read the contentious book “Fight Brahmanical Hindutva Fascism” by Bhima Koregaon accused Varavara Rao.
Some anti-Hindu, anti-BJP excerpts from Varavara Rao’s book- ‘Fight Brahmanical Hindutva Fascism’
The text of the content, as quoted in an article by Organiser reads, “The killings of Mohammad Akhlaq, Prof. M M Kalburgi, and Yakub Memon have come to symbolise in many ways the prevailing situation in the country under Modi-led BJP-rule Akhlaq was bludgeoned to death at his Dadri home in September by a lynch mob that was instigated, mobilised and led by a bunch of Sanghi goons after maliciously spreading the rumour of beef-eating.”
“Prof. Kulbargi was shot dead by unidentified Hindutva-fascist assassins because of his consistent and irrepressible opposition to their designs in Karnataka. Memon was hanged this July in Nagpur jail after his conviction in the 1993 Mumbai blasts in a travesty of justice. For the self-appointed gendarmes of the ‘Hindu Rashtra’, to eat something of one’s choice is anti-national, to voice dissent is anti-national, to be even the brother of a Muslim who is accused of so-called anti-national activities is anti-national- ‘crimes’ that are punishable by death according to the Manuvadi Hindutva-fascists,” it continued.
“Whether the execution is carried out judicially by the state or by any of the numerous murderous gangs raised by the hydra-headed RSS, it makes little difference to the person at the receiving end. These killings (and those of Govind Phansade and Narendra Dabholkar earlier) are but a few of the more talked-about incidents in what has become a continuous barrage of attacks carried out in many forms by the Hindutva-fascists across the country,” the article further stated.
It added, “Particularly since the BJP government came to power, such attacks are taking place almost on a daily basis. Though termed by some as ‘intolerance’, this is part of an all-round attack by the Brahmanical Hindu fascist forces against the people, affecting all spheres of their lives.”
“These attacks are simultaneously ideological, political, social, religious, ethnic, economic, cultural, juridical, and environmental—carried out with violent and non-violent, legal and illegal, constitutional and extra-constitutional means,” reads the article.
The author claimed that Hindutva forces specifically target revolutionary, democratic, secular, and patriotic groups and individuals, as well as any other kind of dissent and non-submissiveness. Furthering his anti-Hindu; anti-BJP rhetorics, the author wrote that the Hindutva forces also target Muslims, Christians, Adivasis, Dalits, women, people of other oppressed genders, people of oppressed nationalities, and even sections of the opposition in parliament.
Past controversies surrounding OP Jindal Global University
This incident is not an isolated one in the history of OP Jindal Global University. Earlier too, the university has come under the scanner for controversies ranging from charges of academic harassment and giving a platform to antisemitic and anti-Hindu views.
One such event involved Professor Sameena Dalwai, who faced allegations of harassment. IN December last year, the Haryana police filed an FIR against the OP Jindal professor for harassing students and breaching their privacy by displaying their profiles in a dating App inside a classroom.
In September, Dalwai allegedly violated the privacy of a student in the classroom by opening their Bumble dating-app account. Dalwai displayed the student’s private account on a Smart TV in a classroom full of students.
A video and screenshots of some chats doing rounds on X, formerly Twitter, showed the professor indulging in a detailed discussion about a dating account, which was allegedly a student’s. Moreover, as per reports, when the students refused to open their profiles, Dalwai allegedly told them to create fake IDs and suggested using Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s picture.
In another instance, varsity professor Achin Vanaik came under the scanner for his anti-Hindu remarks that he made during a lecture on Palestinian history in November last year.
On 1 November 2023, the university organised a talk titled ‘The History and Politics of the Palestinian Present’ by Professor Achin Vanaik, Retired Professor of International Relations and former Head of Department of Political Science at the University of Delhi, now an activist. Several video clips of the professor’s lecture have appeared, which showed that in the name of solidarity with Palestinian civilians in Gaza, he made several antisemitic and anti-Hindu comments. He also attacked the Modi government over India’s stand on the conflict.
Following outrage over his anti-Hindu remarks, OP Jindal Global University issued a statement wherein it issued a warning to the ‘Professor’ for discriminating against Hindu students.
On February 8, 2023, JGU screened the banned BBC documentary “India: The Modi Question,” drawing ire for its perceived bias against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
In 2022, a video of an ongoing classroom session at the Jindal Global Law School surfaced in which Arijeet Ghosh, an assistant professor of the varsity was seen ranting about Kashmir being a territory “occupied by India”.
In an earlier development, the school was caught in controversy in a similar incident regarding the syllabus of the Political Science course. The course manual of the Political Science course taught in the school had topics calling the Indian state ‘oppressive’ while talking about the revolutionary struggle in India. In another segment, Claims of ‘Rise of Hindu Authoritarianism’ were also made
Similarly, in 2021, a controversy erupted after the varsity’s Associate Professor Shruti Pandey during an online lecture, claimed that all Hindus practice untouchability and lauded Islam for allowing widows to remarry.
In February 2020, left-liberal ideologues at JGU staged a protest, putting up offensive banners against the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).