AMU

Antara Dev Sen's Report in the Indian Express

On Roots of Violence in AMU Campus

It looks like a students' movement. But if you probe deeper, the present crisis at Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) reveals a grotesque nexus between university members, criminals and politicians. The main issue is not students' rights or even communalism but hard cash. And political power.

AMU is being slowly throttled by an enormous network of corruption where crores are at stake. So vice- chancellor Mehmoodur Rehman, a heavy-headed IAS officer who doesn't believe in either delegation or discussion, came down strongly on the various rackets in his inimitable style of functioning.

As the money dried up, the ring-leaders of the rackets seemed desperate to get rid of the man choking the pipes of corruption. And apparently, when some residential students fell sick after eating at the mess, they saw their chance. One student was shot dead and another gravely wounded in what seems to be police shoot out.

The police know what's going on, they have not acted. Nor are they denying the firing, though many students and teachers believe that the bullets were not fired by the police.

Their hesitation might be due to the enormous political patronage that the ruffians linked to AMU have. Some of the known roughnecks are said to be close to a former Minister of State for External Affairs, while other claim links with a former Railways Minister. Even Bihar Chief Minister Laloo Yadav seems to be a godfather of sorts.

Thanks to the political protection, a number of rackets have blossomed in AMU. These involve land-grabbing, students' admissions, staff appointments and defalcation of funds. Teachers insist that all this had been brought to the notice of the previous VC, Prof. M.N. Faruqui, but he had failed to stem the rot. When Rehman took over as VC last year, he started his own cleanup operation.

The sprawling campus of AMU is just a part of the enormous property that the university possesses. Estimated to be worth Rs. 150 crores, it has been constantly under threat from illegal property dealers and other encroachers. Earlier this year, the VC suspended three professors related to a property scam.

Admissions was also a major money-spinner for certain 'students' and teachers of the university. Lists were doctored and the substantial discretionary quota of the VC was used to hustle in underqualified students. For a price, of course.

The going rate for a ticket to AMU's medical college was Rs.3-5 lakh. Engineering went slightly cheaper at Rs.1-

3 lakhs. Still cheaper was the MBA course, a flat rate of Rs.1 lakh. And for just Rs. 50,000 you could walk in the back- door of the computer courses.

For the Plus Two course the rates were slashed to Rs. 25,000. And those willing to settle for graduate courses in Arts, Science and Commerce could get in simply by pledging their loyalty. No cash down, just the assurance of mob strength and unconditional support.

Getting into the teaching faculty was almost as easy. Greased palms, political backing and fake papers ensured tenure. People who would seem eminently unqualified as teachers are established faculty members now.

For instance, Mohd. Hafiz Ilyas, who was rusticated from AMU in the early '80 and had unsuccessfully challenged the rustication in the High Court and then in the Supreme Court figures in connection with several police cases involving crime and violence on the campus. Now he is a lecturer in Psychology in AMU. On the campus, he is known as Salman Khursheed's man.

The current agitation against the VC seems to be triggered by a number of factors. First, the admissions were closed on September 30, the day before the shooting Second, the VC had scrapped the admission interview in most of the departments, banking solely on written tests and marksheets. And he strictly monitored the VC's quota.

Third, he started a 'dining hall' system recently, by which all students needed to pay for and eat in their hostels and not, as was the custom, in the nearby dhabas. A lot of these eateries, which had become the meeting place of criminals and students, lost business and were up in arms against the VC. Fourth, he took the land-grabbing threat seriously and suspended three teachers.

Finally, he set up an enquiry committee headed by a High Court judge to look into AMU's affairs over the last five years. Interestingly, the committee began work about two weeks ago. Among the scams it is probing is the case of missing Rs.12 lakh that disappeared from the Controller's office in 1990.

Thus, it is not surprising that many people want the VC out. Some teachers and a section of students believe the current agitation to be a set-up job.

The VC himself has been behaving very strangely. Since the night of the firing, he has gone into hiding. The only gesture he has made to reach out to the students has been a note from underground, beginning: "My heart bleeds."

A campus as volatile as AMU needs more than that.