Ab Tak 149: Corrupt AMU V-C On Suspension Spree

AMU under its present VC is being run in a style that will put even any medieval monarchy to shame. A prestigious Central University with a glorious past is being turned into a concentration camp for the students and faculty alike, with not-too-hidden blessings of the UPA govt at the centre. Continuing with his authoritarian and draconian crackdowns on the students, the AMU VC has suspended one more student, Mohd. Adil Hossain, a student of M.A. (Previous) Mass Communication on 3 June, 2010. The official notice served to Adil Hossain claims that he is being suspended for “incessantly indulging in rumour mongering, canard spreading, defaming the Aligarh Muslim University,” and that he has “lowered down and tarnished the image of the University over the internet”!! Can anything be more absurd and outrageous than this, where a university systematically throws out its students for merely airing their opinions about the institution they study?

We have not forgotten how a senior faculty member, Dr. Siras, was witch-hunted for his homosexual orientation, illegally suspended and finally pushed to death by the AMU administration. The VC and his cohorts orchestrated and enacted this barbaric show even in the face nationwide public outcry and condemnation.

Mired in numerous charges of financial and administrative corruption exposed in the Executive Council of the university itself and facing high-level enquires, the corrupt VC and his administration are hell bent upon quelling any criticism in any form. The paranoia of the corrupt VC has reached such a state that his authoritarian tactics are transgressing all norms of civility and reason.

University or a Prison cell

24X7 Survillence on Students and Faculty : The present AMU VC has installed 57 CCTV cameras, night-vision devices and other high-tech gadgetry worth Rs. 10 crore for a 24×7 vigil on the campus.

Banning of Any Poster in the Campus: In reply to an RTI filed on the issue of pasting of posters within the campus, the proctor’s office has replied that “pasting of news paper cuttings/posters on the walls of the Hall and other premises of the university would also be dealt harshly with the students( they may face severe punishment).” There is no specific board arranged by the university authorities in the whole university where students can paste their posters or any other items. The earlier notice board at the entrance of Moulana Azad Library was also removed making it impossible for students to convey any information through this medium.  Clearly, there is no way a student can register dissent on campus – neither through posters and leaflets nor through holding signature campaigns or rallies as that gets them suspended from the university.

Spy Network in the Campus : The current AMU administration has repeatedly proven to be intolerant and undemocratic in its functioning. The existence of the Local Intelligence Unit (LIU) has been a constant source of nuisance and problem on the campus. Its criminal role in the witch-hunt of the senior faculty member Dr. Siras is well known by now. In a report in the Indian Express dated April 10th 2010, AMU Proctor Md Zubair Khan confirmed: “There is such a proctorial team on the university. You can call it a local intelligence unit where students give information about campus activities and unwanted elements.” After a huge public outcry over the presence of a ‘spy agency’ -a first of its kind- in any educational institution in India, the AMU administration, including the Vice-Chancellor, went over to deny its presence and have started calling it a mere “watch and ward” team. but students know that the LIU has remained active in the campus and continued to perform their spy activities. In an RTI filed to confirm details regarding the existence of the LIU, the Proctor’s Office has admitted that the LIU exists in AMU and that they spend 1.2 lakh per month in paying salaries to people employed to carry out its activities. The CPIO(Budget) of AMU in the letter (vide D.No.990/FO dated 30.10.09) stated AMU doesn’t have any fund meant for anything called LIU. So the obvious question that arises is- who pays for the 14 lakh per annum spent by the administration on this spy agency and whether any other funds from the university are being diverted for its functioning? In a subsequent RTI, the proctorial office has denied the existence of an LIU but several other RTI replies mention a body called the LIU.

Adil’s ‘Crime’ : Ostensible ‘reasons’ for Adil’s suspension “that he has been incessantly indulging in rumour mongering, canard spreading, defaming the Aligarh Muslim University,” and that he has “lowered down and tarnished the image of the University over the internet” arise from the fact that Adil has been raising concerns about each of these grave violations of basic democratic rights of the campus community. First time he was suspended last October for being part of the student movement protesting the shocking murder of an AMU student. Subsequently he had criticized the installation of the CCTV cameras on campus and being a resident student was fighting for the right to freedom of expression on the university campus especially after the illegal suspension and subsequent death of Dr. Siras.  The question that must be asked is who is tarnishing AMU’s prestige- the VC who has turned this prestigious university into a concentration camp or those who are speaking out to preserve the basic democratic ethos and values sans of which no university can survive?

However, Adil is not the only victim.

According to the RTI data compiled by Shahzad Alam, a former AMU student, Adil Hossain is the 149th student to be suspended or rusticated during the term of the current Vice Chancellor PK Abdul Aziz. RTI reveals that in 2007, 32 students were suspended in September, 6 in August, 26 in October and 15 in November. In 2008, roughly 10 students were suspended. Of the students who were suspended in 2007, 28 students were rusticated in 2008. 31 students were suspended in 2009 of which 18 were suspended in November. Of the suspended students, four were rusticated. In 2010, 12 students had been suspended till April taking the total count to 148 students who had been suspended, rusticated or both.

Recently, another Mass Communication student, Mr. Afaq Ahmed has also been suspended from the university since April 22, 2010 for the ‘crime’ of filming the experiences of the student-managed Dining Hall system at V.M.Hall. This was also a case of total denial of his fundamental right of freedom of speech and expression. Recently suspended Adil filed an RTI to the PIO of AMU ( Ref No. 98/CAPIO/F/10-11 dated 28/04/2010) about the grounds for arbitrary suspension of Mr.Afaq Ahmad. In the reply to the RTI (vide D.No 93/BRH dated 29.05.2010) to the question “whether a student need permission from Provost or not to shoot a video inside a Hall”, Provost accepted “there is no Rule/Ordinances/ Regulation explicitly prohibiting making of video clip of Hall without the permission of the Provost.” And yet Afaq stood suspended!

And now with Adil’s suspension, the VC seeks to assert that students are debarred from airing any opinion even on blogs and websites!!!

With students getting more and more vocal about the official surveillance, the number is likely to rise. “This AMU has no difference with Hitler’s Nazi Regime where dissent was not tolerated at any cost. In a situation where we do not agree to a decision made by the AMU authorities what are the options available to us to register our dissent?” asks Adil Hossain.

All Powerful ‘Irfan Habib Lobby’ of AMU is Backing this Medieval Autocracy!

What is most unfortunate is that in this dangerous and reactionary game of the AMU administration, it has found support from the powerful Prof. Irfan Habib lobby of ‘progressive’ CPI(M). In a shocking stance (reported in Tehelka, UP edition, 30th April), Prof. Habib has justified the presence of spies and LIUs in AMU. According to him, they have been present in AMU since 1980-81. He has said that there is nothing wrong in the existence of such agencies – since it ‘frees teachers from administrative chores’ and enables them to concentrate on academics! It is indeed shocking that such a defence of blatant violation of civil rights in a university campus is coming from a historian of Prof. Habib’s stature. The fact that he commands considerable sway in the AMU campus and draws clout from CPI(M)’s political establishment, makes his stance doubly detrimental and goes against the struggle for democratising the AMU campus.

End the Authoritarian and Barbaric Regime of AMU VC!

Clearly, Adil’s suspension is just the last example in a long list of autocratic decisions that the VC of AMU has taken since his term started. The University was closed Sine Die last September amidst protests regarding the murder of a student on the campus and the bad safety conditions and poor security facilities prevailing on campus. 6 students were then suspended for voicing their protest against the conditions prevailing on campus. The shameful role which the university played in the suspension and subsequent death of Dr. Siras, a reader of Marathi, for indulging in “immoral activities” was nothing short of criminal. Student Union Elections remains banned on campus and clearly so is speaking out against the administration.

We condemn the state to which the students and teachers of the university have been reduced to under the exercise of arbitrary powers by the university administration. It would be a national ignominy and shame if a public funded central university of the country of AMU’s repute is allowed to become the burial ground of the very ideas and values that define a university. We call upon all the democratic voices in different university campuses and larger civil society to join us in this campaign to uphold the right to freedom of expression and basic rights of the students and faculty of AMU.

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8 thoughts on “Ab Tak 149: Corrupt AMU V-C On Suspension Spree

  1. unite against upa agenda opperassing capus democracy in all campuses inciuding amu.it is part of wolrd bank agenda privitised the education.the all thing only part of corporate loot

  2. AMU humse chaatra rajniti ka naya tarika aur naya tewar gadhne ki maang kar raha hai, humain AMU prashashan ke fasiwadi aatank aur witch-hunt ko dwast karne ke liye chatra golbandi ke naye taur-tarike aur forums taiyyar karne hi honge!

    RED SALUTE to Comrades fighting against the fascist and corrupt AMU Administration!

  3. AMU campus me loktantra ka hatyara VC murdabad!
    loktantra ke liye,bhrastachar ke khilaf AISA ki ladai zindabad!!

  4. down with paranoic AMU administration. resist the attempts to turn academic institutions into a police state. restore campus democracy in AMU

  5. I bet Mohammad (our Iranian Comrade from JNU) will like this website….he had been suggesting this for quite sometime…Well done Comrades! I hope through this website AISA will give space and attention to progressive movements around the world as well….

  6. It is but sad to know that Md Adil Hossain has been expelled from his University for the charges of “misusing the Internet”, “breach and violation of an earlier undertaking of good behaviour,” and “exploiting natural calamities” as leveled against him in the expulsion letter that was served to him.
    If writing on one’s own blog becomes a crime, if one is not allowed to react to any kind of stimuli that is coming towards him/her, what else, we might as well be non-humans.
    Indeed there is a nationwide clampdown on any kind of student voice and opportunities/space for agitation. University administrations slowly seem to be pulling in the net that they have very carefully been laying out over the span of a last few years. Student Councils and other student representative bodies and mechanisms of student representation are remaining non-functional and in most cases non-existent. What is more saddening is the sheer apathy that the larger student community is showing towards such a detrimental change that would eventually kill any kind of democratic “peaceful” student movement for any time in the future. The “good boys” are being favoured while the “troublemakers” are being charge sheeted and eventually dismissed. Worse, in some cases students are also being asked to tender an apology for an offence for which they have not even been charged, let alone inquired.
    The present system is hell bent on creating puppets who will mouth their principles/ morals/ ethics, and the worst is, the number of such puppets are ever on the rise.

  7. an arbitrary decision and blatant violations in the Selection procedure by the VC and the Registrar of AMU.
    It is known to all the chaotic condition and the mass corruption in the Aligarh Muslim University vis-à-vis the various enquiries by the retired judges of the High Court and CBI. Inspite of these enquiries and categorical findings the corruption, nepotism, favouritism has not stopped in the University. The university administration in the bid to save guard themselves has further resorted to corrupt practices which is not only going to spoil the academic atmosphere but would jeopardize the standard of University itself.

    It is pertinent to mention that the University administration knowing fully well that they are under investigation yet went ahead with corrupt practices to call for Selection Committee for General/Career Advancement Scheme(CAS) to oblige either person with high connection or for some illegal wrongful gains. In the process the person who was not eligible and qualified were only called for Interview and those who objected were issued Interview Letter on the same date giving hardly two to three hours time to appear in the Interview. It was merely eyewash and subsequently the promotions were given only to the person for whom the entire process was initiated.

    With reference to the Selection Committee held on 15-07-2011 in Sociology (Department of Sociology & Social Work, A.M.U., Aligarh) under Career Advancement Scheme (CAS) the following facts are brought to your kind notice for further enquiry and necessary action.

    Only one candidate was communicated about the said Selection Committee whereas other eligible candidates were made to run from pillar to posts for the sake of Interview Letter. It was only at 4.45 P.M. on 15.07.2011 that the Interview Letter was issued to the other candidates, after harassing and causing mental torture to them since the last several days. They somehow managed to appear before the Selection Committee within the short span of two and a half hour. But unfortunately the candidate for whose promotion the Selection Committee was planned and arranged was promoted whereas the other candidate who was eligible for promotion from Sr. Lecturer to reader since 2006 was denied promotion. This decision of the Selection Committee projected blatant discrimination, favouritism, prejudice, biasness, and disrespect for merit/academic achievements of sincere and hard-working teachers. Further, it reveals to have a soft corner for those who are well connected. Such an arbitrary decision only reflects a callous attitude towards the hard and sincere service rendered by the teacher in an institution having the status of central university. If this remains unchallenged and not probed the trend will create an environment of autocracy rather than democracy. If the whole matter is investigated the truth will get exposed. The records of all the candidates and the selection of the worst candidate could easily be made out from the comparative analysis.

    It is to utter surprise that the experts called for are not even in the present approved list as that would not have served the interest of manipulators, for their wrongful gains. More over in the manner in which the dates were fixed and then preponed for a day evidently shows the corrupt practices adopted to thwart any remedy for the rightful candidates or any interference by the competent authority to stop going ahead with such an illegal promotion process.

    The university has no justifiable reason to show as to why huge expenditure were incurred for going ahead with the illegal process of promotion for a single candidate.

    Under the above mentioned circumstances, it is requested that a thorough enquiry be made and appropriate action be taken. I am hopeful that action if taken will serve the public interest and save the reputation of the University.

    Thanks.

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