Left historian and Nehru loyalist Ramachandra Guha, often associated with distortion of the Indian history and indulging in propaganda has pulled out of a teaching assignment at Ahmedabad University (AU) citing circumstances ‘beyond his control’. Ramachandra Guha announced his decision to pull out from AU after Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the largest student organisation in the country opposed his appointment for his alleged ‘Anti-National’ views.
Ahmedabad University had announced that Ramchandra Guha was appointed as the Shrenik Lalbhai Chair Professor of Humanities and director of the Gandhi International School at the university’s School of Arts and Sciences on October 16. On October 19, members of Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) registered their protest against the decision.
Pravin Desai, ABVP’s secretary for Ahmedabad city reportedly said, “We made a representation before AU Registrar B M Shah. We said that we want intellectuals in our educational institutes and not anti-nationals, who can also be termed as ‘urban Naxals’. We had quoted anti-national content from his (Guha’s) books to the Registrar. We told him, the person you are calling is a ‘Communist’. If he is invited to Gujarat, there would be a JNU-kind anti-national sentiment.”
The ABVP has written a memorandum to the Vice-Chancellor and had demanded the cancellation of Guha’s appointment. It describes his work as “critical of India’s Hindu culture”. ABVP in its memorandum has said that his writings have promoted divisive tendencies, alienation in the name of independence of the individual, and separating Jammu and Kashmir from the Indian union, in well-known universities like Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) and Central University, Hyderabad.
After severe opposition by student bodies, the Ahmedabad University is said to have talked to Guha and postponed the date of his joining at the AU. Guha was supposed to teach from February 1st, 2019.
“Due to circumstances beyond my control, I shall not be joining Ahmedabad University. I wish AU well; it has fine faculty and an outstanding Vice-Chancellor. And may the spirit of Gandhi one day come alive once more in his native Gujarat,” Guha tweeted on Thursday.
AU’s Registrar, however, said that the university has no comment to make on this announcement. “Even I got to know from the tweet. The Vice-Chancellor is out of the country. The university will look into how to take this development”, the Registrar said.
Ramachandra Guha, a left-wing historian and a loyalist to the Nehru family is often seen as a controversial figure. Guha has been slammed frequently on social media for falsifying facts and resorting to slander against certain individuals. Ramchandra Guha, who advertises himself as a historian, has been called out various time for inaccuracies in his historical facts and his blind support for the Nehru dynasty.
