New Delhi, (IANS): The Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in the national capital and Kolkatas Jadavpur University – which have been in the eye of storm over alleged anti-national sloganeering – figure in the top universities of the country as per a government list released on Monday.
As per the “India Rankings” under the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF), JNU is the second-best university in the country after Bengaluru’s Indian Institute of Science (IISc) while Jadavpur University has been ranked fifth best.
Releasing the rankings, Union Human Resource Development Minister Prakash Javadekar said the rankings of the universities have been ranked for their quality and not for controversies.
“JNU or Jadavpur University have not been ranked for raising (pro-Parliament attack convict) Afzal Guru slogans. They have not been ranked for confining the Vice Chancellor but for their research work science, biotechnology and other fields,” he said.
The University of Hyderabad which hit the headlines over the suicide of its PhD student Rohith Vemula, has been ranked seventh in the lists of universities.
While the JNU was at the eye of massive political storm last year after anti-India slogans were raised at an event on the anniversary of the hanging of Afzal Guru, similar “anti-national” slogans were also allegedly raised at the Jadavpur University as well.
Launched in 2015, NIRF is a methodology adopted by the HRD Ministry to rank all institutions of higher education in India.