At a time when the COVID-19 pandemic is rapidly gripping Madhya Pradesh, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan seems to have kept himself occupied with removing the state’s premier journalism university’s vice-chancellor and professors.
Amongst the professors who have been removed are those who criticised the RSS or those who identify as Gandhian thinkers.
According to the state health department’s 19 April bulletin, Madhya Pradesh has over 1,400 COVID-19 cases across 25 districts, with more than 75 deaths.
Not only does the state have no health minister or home minister, even after 28 days of forming the government, this is a state where 94 medial officials, including four IAS officers, have contracted the disease.
A day after the vice-chancellor (V-C) of Makhanlal Chaturvedi National University of Journalism and Communication (MCNUJC) Deepak Tiwari resigned, the state government on Sunday – on an official holiday – appointed P Narhari, secretary, Public Relations Department, as the new V-C.
According to sources, Tiwari had been getting calls from the Chief Minister’s Office to tender his resignation. This had been happening ever since Chouhan took oath as chief minister on 23 March, after the BJP was successful in toppling the 15-month long Congress government.
Hours later, the University sacked two adjunct professors appointed by the former V-C. These were professors Arun Tripathi, a research scholar on Gandhian studies and a Gandhian thinker, and Vishnu Rajgarhia.
Tripathi was teaching in the Journalism department and Rajgarhia in the Mass Communication department of the University.
In addition to this, the University appointed known RSS sympathiser professor Sanjay Dwivedi as the new registrar, replacing Deependra Baghel. This was also done on Sunday.
The University also sacked adjunct professor Mukesh Kumar, on 16 April, for criticising the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) for manning a Telangana police check post during the nationwide lockdown.
They were seen asking for IDs in a news item that went viral recently. Like others, Kumar was also appointed during the former V-C’s regime in the Electronic Media department.
“I am critical of the BJP and RSS and, considering the change of government, they were looking for reasons to throw me out. Ever since I joined the University, they have been targeting me because I criticise the policies of the Modi government. I oppose the Hindutva agenda of the RSS and the BJP,” he said.
Even when the Congress rose to power in Madhya Pradesh in December 2018, after defeating the BJP in the Assembly elections, the Kamal Nath-led government had removed or replaced professors, just like the BJP is doing now.
The then University V-C, Jagdish Upasane, was allegedly asked to resign and Tiwari, a well-known journalist and author, had replaced him.
Taking a dig at Chouhan, Congress media-incharge and former Higher Education minister Jitu Patwari said: “The chief minister, Shivraj, has no time for cabinet expansion due to the looming COVID-19 threat, but has abundant time to sack and appoint professors in the journalism university.”
He further said, “It is a well-known fact that the journalism university had been a den of the RSS and the BJP. When Congress came to power in 2018, the party tried to wash off the RSS ideology from the campus. We were successful too. But now, the university is back to square one.”
For the BJP and the Congress, the journalism university has become a center of their power tussle. Whenever the government changes hands, the university also witnesses drastic changes, said educationist Arun Gutru.
“When there is no education minister in the state, while all universities and offices are closed due to the lockdown, CM Chouhan is the only person who is making these changes. He could’ve waited until the lockdown was lifted... why was there such a rush?” Gutru asked.
(Kashif Kakvi is a Bhopal-based freelance journalist. He can be reached @KashifKakvi.)
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