The students of SVDV which is the Dharma Vigyan department of Banaras Hindu University (BHU) who have been protesting the appointment of one Dr Firoze Khan in the Dharma Vigyan department for more than a fortnight now, has decided to discontinue the protest for the time being. The student in a media brief also informed that he along with other students would be going to the PM’ office tomorrow at 12 noon to submit a letter with their demands.
This development came in after the university administration has, in a written assurance, asked for 10 days time from the students to resolve the issue. Moreover, the students said that since the Prime Minister himself has taken note of the issue and a report has been sent to the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), they would like to end the protest based on the expectation of positive outcomes.
The PMO has asked for a report from the BHU administration and Divisional Officer Deepak Aggarwal sent the report to the PMO despite being on a foreign tour. Now the administration is preparing a detailed report, which will be sent to the Prime Minister’s Office.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qll0PCxnGVw]
The students have however said that their fight will be ongoing and they will be boycotting all classes and examinations. But the protest is being put on hold. They said that till the VC and the administration doesn’t release a report, they will continue to boycott classes and examinations.
In a letter addressed to the media, the students have said that they are discontinuing the protest briefly, however, their demands remain the same and will continue the drive until all their demands are not met. They further intimated that though the protest has been temporarily called off on the written assurance of the administration but until there is no positive outcome the students would continue to boycott classes and examinations.
The protests, which were earlier limited to the Dharma Vigyan Faculty and the appointment of Dr Firoz Khan had now, made its way to several other departments. It escalated today after the students burnt effigies of Vice-Chancellor of BHU. Rakesh Bhatnagar is currently VC of BHU. Hundreds of students congregated to burn the effigy of the Vice-Chancellor.
Yesterday, the students presented a set of questions to the administration and have demanded answers. The students of the Dharma Vigyan department are protesting against the appointment of Dr Firoz Khan to teach Dharma Vigyan. While Khan is a professor of Sanskrit, he has been employed in the Dharma Vigyan department and not in the Arts department that teaches Sanskrit as a linguistic endeavour. The Dharma Vigyan department is a course for religious learning and Hindu Dharma.
On Thursday (November 21, 2019), Swami Avimukteshwaranand extended his support to the Dharma Vigyan students of BHU. He said that reading and experiencing the words are two different things. Shankaracharya also wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, calling the appointment of Firoz Khan contrary to the values of religion.
