After the right-wing student outfit, Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) accused the Muslim faculty at the government law college in Indore of promoting fundamentalism and ‘love jihad’, an FIR was filed against its principal and three others.
Huneza Khan | TwoCircles.net
BHOPAL (MADHYA PRADESH) — A Muslim principal of a law college in Indore city of Madhya Pradesh was forced to quit after allegations of promoting ‘love jihad’ and religious fundamentalism emerged on the campus last week.
In his resignation letter, a copy of which lies with TwoCircles.net, Dr Inamur Rahman, the Principal of the New Government Law College in Indore said that he is deeply saddened by the “ongoing protest carried out by the university students as well as unknown students since December 1, 2022.”
“Hence, I am stepping down from the post of principal,” he wrote.
The protests at the campus were carried out by the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), which is the student wing of Hindu right-wing outfit Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), against alleged “religious fundamentalist thoughts being promoted by four Muslim teachers of the college.”
Denying allegations of religious fundamentalism and ‘love Jihad’ made by ABVP, Inamur Rahman told TwoCircles.net that he was left with no choice but to resign. He had been serving as the college principal since 2019.
Rahman resigned two days after ABVP in a memorandum to the college principal questioned the “high number of Muslim faculty members” at the college.
Rahman dismissed the charge as baseless and said there are only “four Muslim teachers at the college.”
“Out of 28 staff members, only 4 are Muslims. How is it favouritism? How is it justified?” he said.
ABVP released a 3-page letter with 17 demands. In a 3-page memo, the right-wing student body accused the college administration of “promoting Muslims and Islamic culture inside the campus.” The memo accused four Muslim teachers of promoting ‘love jihad’ and claimed that they took female students to restaurants and pubs. ABVP threatened a mass protest if their demands are not fulfilled.
In response, Principal Inamur Rahman recommended a probe led by a retired district court judge. Four accused professors of the college were suspended from duty for five days until the investigation was carried out. He also urged the ABVP students to submit a report in the next five days.
“They served us a memorandum and forced us to dismiss the staff. We even constituted a committee of two retired judges for an independent probe of allegations,” Rahman said.
Rahman said the accused professors are bright and have a clean record. “Their hard work made our college achieve two national Moots and a new cycle of NET. The students are more interested in politics rather than improving grades. Many of them have not paid college fees. They will fail,” he said.
One of the dismissed faculty members, who spoke on anonymity, told TwoCircles.net said that all allegations against Muslim faculty are baseless. “The college reached the highs because of our hard work and not favouritism. They are targeting us because we belong to a particular community,” he said.
What led to allegations of ‘love jihad’ & religious fundamentalism?
At the centre of the controversy is a book titled ‘Collective Violence and Criminal Justice System’ written by Dr Farhat Khan and published by an Indore-based Amar Law Publication, which was reportedly kept at the college library.
ABVP in its memo alleged that Khan’s book contained “very objectionable content against the Hindu community, RSS, Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Bajrang Dal, and Durga Vahini.” They accused the Muslim professors at the college of making provocative statements against the Army, government, the Hindu community, section 370 and Indian history.”
ABVP further alleged that the book was “promoting religious hatred” and was taught at the college for the past five years. As the controversy erupted, the college administration removed the book from the library.
Rahman said the book was issued before his tenure. “I condemn any objectionable literature and actions should be taken against those who are responsible. But why is my staff targeted for doing their job?” he said.
Rahman said they were being targeted for things that they had no connection with.
ABVP state working committee member Lucky Adiwal who was part of the December 1 protest at the college told TwoCircles.net that they have objections over the contents of the book.
Adiwal, who is a 3rd semester LLM student at the college, said that the book is controversial “as it targets Hinduism.”
“The book is anti-national and spreads communalism. Anybody can write a book against religion and nation but teaching it in a government college is unacceptable,” he said.
Adiwal alleged the book reflected the ideology of “Jai Bheem, Jai Meem”, which is a slogan popularised by Assadudin Owasi’s All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) to woo Dalits and Muslims.
He also accused the Muslim teachers of teaching Mughal history and ignoring the Hindu kings, and is against their alleged social media posts against the controversial abrogation of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir.
FIR against principal, author, teacher, & publisher
Several hours after Rahman’s resignation, Bhawar Kuan Police of Indore filed a first information report (FIR) against him and three others.
The Indian Express reported that an FIR has been registered against Dr. Farhat Khan, author of the book titled ‘Collective Violence and Criminal Justice System’, Amar Law Publication, principal of the institute Dr. Inamur Rahman, and professor Mirza Mojiz Baig, a faculty member of the college.
The four were booked under sections 153-A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, and residence), 295-A (Deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs), and other sections of the Indian Penal Code.
Hitesh Khetrapal of Amar Law Publications, who is named in the FIR, told TwoCircles.net that they had discontinued publishing the book after objections against it were raised in 2021.
“The remaining books were sold in the market after discarding 10-15 objectionable pages and we also requested an apology letter from Dr Farhat Khan. Humans make mistakes. The author has already apologised. It is politics now,” said Hitesh.
Attack on freedom of expression
Swaran Ram Darapuri, a social activist and retired IPS officer told TwoCircles.net that it is an attack on freedom of expression. “Unfortunately, criticism is considered a criminal act by the government,” he said.
Darapuri said that it is sad that the principal was forced to resign for a book criticising RSS. “It simply demonstrates the government’s communal policy which is very harmful,” he added and called for a probe into the incident.
Huneza Khan is a student and a budding journalist from Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh. She tweets @KhanHuneza