By TwoCircles.net staff reporter
Aligarh: Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) Vice Chancellor Lt. General (retd.) Zamiruddin Shah has come under criticism for his comments on Narendra Modi published in the Times of India on May 7, 2014.
Responding to a question, Lt. Gen. Shah said that even though riots of 2002 happened during Modi’s rule adding “when people are entrusted with the responsibility of serving the nation, they change. They carry the pressure of taking the whole country forward.”
“Responsibilities bring a transformation, no matter what someone’s past was,” said Shah.
A group of professors from AMU, JNU, and Delhi University have reacted strongly to this comment. In a statement issued today these eminent professors said “we are surprised at the General’s remarks on Mr. Narendra Modi.”
Lt. Gen Shah “foresees much improvement in the latter when he assumes responsibilities of power as Prime Minister, as if he did not have power enough when as Chief Minister he presided over the communal slaughter in Gujarat. We are perplexed as to why the General needed to go out of his way to commend Mr Modi in this fashion.”
Statement was signed by:
Irfan Habib, Professor Emeritus, AMU
D.N. Jha, Professor of History (Retd.), Delhi University
P.K. Shukla, Formerly, Member Secretary, Indian Council of Historical Research
I.A. Khan, Professor of History (Retd.), AMU
Shireen Moosvi, Professor of History (Retd.), AMU
Mridula Mukherjee, Professor of History, J.N.U.
Ramesh Rawat, Professor of Hindi, AMU
S.A. Nadeem Rezavi, Associate Professor, AMU
Aditya Mukherjee, Professor of History, J.N.U.
Farhat Hasan, Professor of History, Delhi University
S.Zaheer Husain Jafri, Professor of History, Delhi University
Ishrat Alam, Associate Professor of History, AMU
Shalin Jain, Associate Professor, Delhi University