Indian universities have long had a poor international reputation compared with East Asia & the West for academic performance and research. For example, not a single Indian university has appeared within the top 300 in the annual global rankings for higher institutions. Indians may be proud of Delhi's JNU but in 2014 it ranked 80 among Asian universities. And now the ignorant bigots from the BJP-RSS ruling hierarchy are determined to subject universities to Vedic rules.The last two years have seen massive student unrestacross universities in the country because of a systematic attack on theautonomy of educational institutions and the freedom of students. Among those that have witnessed outrage are: FTII, Hyderabad Central University, JNU (Delhi) orNIT (Srinagar). Now it is the turn of Benaras Hindu University (BHU) which houses around 40,000 students. Modi’s government has appointed Girish Chandra Tripathias the vice chancellor because of his 40 years of association with the RSS. He has openly espoused RSS ideology and justifies it “When the Indian government itself is of the RSS, there is nothing wrong in establishing an RSS’ shakha in BHU.“ He promptly expelled renowned socialactivist and Magsaysay award winner SandeepPandey for not toeing the Sangh Parivar’sline. Does this Tripathi have any academic credentials? What is his specialty? This is probably not important for the intellectually vacuous babus who run the the BJP government and with no clue about University goals and academic standards. The BHU admin has come down hard on the girl students: - no usage of mobile phones after 10 pm. - no use of 24×7 library at night [ VC has said that “girlswho study in the night are immoral,” ] - women not allowed to use the bus facility, a service meant for all students (as per prospectus) - women cannot consume meat [ VC says it makes them impure]. Men may have meat. - student demand for cyber library was refused [Reason: such a library will encourage watching pornography. In addition, students need not study anything outside the syllabus”] - women have to sign a pledge not to take part in any protest or agitation - they are notallowed to participate in any socio-cultural activities outside the campus. - In the name of safety, women have a curfew of 8 pm, while men have none. - womenwearing short dresses and skirts will be warned by the administration. -Mixing of the sexes is discouraged. VC says “boys and girls hanging out together is against Indian values”. - Anyone found celebrating Valentine’s Day would besuspended. Finally, the Upper castes form the majority of the administrative body, while the positions meant for people from the reserved categoriesremains unfilled. There is no space for students to question or exercise their rightto dissent and women are voiceless.RSS wants BHU to be the model for every other institution of the country. Read more https://thewire.in/67205/bhu-rsss-new-education-lab-open-gender-discrimination/ Eddie
