Madhya Pradesh: Six Govt Law College teachers taken off duty for allegedly being ‘anti-national’

Indore (Madhya Pradesh): Indore Government Law College on Thursday took six teachers including four Muslims off duty temporarily after ABVP accused them of being anti-establishment and promoting fundamentalism and ‘negative thoughts’ about the Central government.

Two of these teachers hail from Kashmir, the ABVP activists claimed.

“All the six teachers would not take lectures for five days until a judicial inquiry into the allegations of the ABVP,” college principal Dr Inamur Rahman told reporters.

The teachers include four Muslim and two Hindu teachers viz Prof Mirza Moziz Beg, Prof Feroze Ahmed Meer, Prof Suhail Ahmed Wani, Prof Milind Kumar Gautam, Prof Ameek Khokar, and Poornima Bise.

Earlier in the day, ABVP activists created a ruckus outside the principal’s office demanding action against the teachers.

Dipendra Thakur, head of the ABVP unit at the college, alleged in a complaint to the principal that some teachers promoted ‘religious fundamentalism and negative thoughts about the government and the Army’ among the first-year students.

On Fridays, the principal, Muslim teachers and students offer namaaz, and during this period classes are not held, he alleged. ‘Love jihad’ and ‘non-vegetarianism’ was being promoted on campus, the complaint further said.

ABVP provincial secretary Ghanshyam Singh and Lucky Adiwal alleged that the teachers dub the government’s move of scrapping Article 370 a blunder. ‘They tell them that the country was happier during the regime of Akbar and Babur,’ the duo alleged.

They also claimed that these teachers were running a signature campaign against the National Education Policy (NEP)-2022. Principal Rahman said the atmosphere in the college was not like what has been described in the complaint.

"As the ABVP's complaint is serious, I have decided that an inquiry should be conducted by a retired judge of the district court," he told reporters. To ensure that the inquiry can be conducted fairly, the six teachers who faced accusations have been taken off duty for five days, he said.

As to the two Hindu teachers among them, he said the ABVP has accused them of behaving in an autocratic way and not talking properly with students.