BHU Sanskrit dept students protest against Muslim professor's appointment
Varanasi/IBNS: The "Sahitya" or the literature wing of the Sanskrit Vidya Dharm Vijnan, which is a unit of the prestigious Banaras Hindu University, is facing a lockout for nearly two weeks with students protesting the appointment of a Muslim man as Assistant Professor in the department.
The protesting students want the appointment of Firoz Khan to be revoked and demand fresh recruitment in his place.
For nearly 12 days, 30 students of Sanskrit Literature have been sitting outside the office of BHU Vice-Chancellor Rakesh Bhatnagar demanding the cancellation of the appointment.
The protesters have been reciting hymns and even carried out a yajna, stating they would not budge till their demands are met.
"I think the media is distorting it. We are not fighting against someone from any particular religion but we are aghast that things are not happening according to tradition," Krishan Kumar, one of the protesters, was quoted as saying by NDTV.
They made it clear that they are against the appointment to this particular unit.
"This is not a normal department. It is the Sanskrit-Vidya-Dharma-Vijnan-Sankaya, where we are taught about our culture and not just the language," said he.
According to the BHU website, the Sanskrit-Vidya-Dharma-Vijnan-Sankaya was established in 1918 by BHU founder Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya to "preserve and promote the studies of ancient Indian shastras, Sanskrit language and literature."
There is also a separate department of Sanskrit that functions under the faculty of arts.
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