The Aligarh Muslim University administration seems to be fond of courting controversies. This time it is facing a student upsurge in one of the 18 residential Halls (a Hall consists of 4-6 hostels) of the students. This Hall is named as Viqarul Mulk, after one of the closest comrade of the founder Sir Syed Ahmad Khan, whose name was Mushtaq Hussain Khan (1841-1917), and was given an honorific title of Viqarul Mulk (lit. the pride of the nation). Viqarul Mulk was also in the forefront of the movement demanding the M.A.O. College to upgrade as a university in the early decades of the twentieth century. The movement then was mired with factionalism. In the Urdu biography of Viqarul Mulk published in 1925, the biographer says that what Viqarul Mulk hated most was the factionalism and corruption-irregula rities in the M.A.O. College , which is now AMU. Ironically, the Hall, named after him is presently in the throes of worst kind of factionalism and corruption.
The resident students of this Hall are angry with the Provost (who is the head administrator of the Hall, discharging his responsibilities in addition to teaching). One student has been forced out of the hostel, having been converted to the status of Non Resident, which is often taken as a stigma, because this forced exit is inflicted as a mark of punishment. Subsequently he has been suspended, even while admitted in the University health centre for treatment of small pox. According to the Hall administration, the student is alleged to have called a photo journalist to take photographs of the food being served in the Dining Hall, under the management of the students. Some weeks ago, the students had approached the Vice Chancellor, praying that the students should be allowed to manage the food affairs, as it was frequently running in deficit under the official (Hall) management. Quite often, an average deficit of Rs. 250 a month was being charged from the students in addition to what they paid every month. The VC allowed the students to manage it. The management of students did not incur any deficit while the menu reportedly had improved distinctly.
As the forced exit of the student invited greater protest mobilization of the students, the Provost lodged an FIR alleging that a group of students had molested his wife and snatched her golden chain from their personal/ private residence a bit away from the campus. The students vehemently deny such allegation by saying it is all concocted.
They say that this outrageous kind of allegation has been made against the students because a group of students submitted a signed memorandum to the Visitor (the President of the Indian Republic) demanding suspension of those functionaries who invaded the privacy of Prof. Siras and eventually he died an unnatural death (suicide or murder), hence, according to the students, the administration is being vindictive, revengeful and intimidative. There are also reports that some groups have only made use of the signatures obtained at some other time for some other purposes. In this way the whole episode is shrouded with mystery and confusion.
But one thing is quite clear that corruption in the Dining Halls affairs is a persistent issue, and quite often, bigger upsurges of students start from here. The VM Hall has particularly been simmering with student discontent since last several years under successive regimes. The AMU administration had to recover an amount of about Rs 43000 from one of the previous Provosts. This too was an issue of the Dining Hall finances. The incumbent Hall administration has been alleging the outgoing Hall administration that it swindled about Rs 3-4 lakhs, and an internal audit is in progress. In course of the audit, it has been detected that a refrigerator is missing while its purchase vouchers/ receipts are available. Students allege that this refrigerator has been taken away by one of the previous Wardens (Dining Hall In-charge). The students are demanding that an inquiry into the assets owned by those teachers should be conducted, who perennially love to take the charge of Warden (Dining Hall). There are only 30-35 such teachers, who keep serving as Warden Dining Hall, in one or the other residential Halls. Whenever students raise the voice of corruption in Dining Halls, they receive punishments of one or the other kind. This has been happening since colonial days, writes Prof. Mushirul Hasan, in one of his research essays on the AMU. In the late 1940s, a student of the Sir Syed Hall was rusticated by the then Vice Chancellor, Sir Ziauddin, for having raised such issues. This VC was inclined towards the Muslim League, and under written and oral instructions from the British Lt. Governor of U.P., he also used to suspend those students and teachers who were having nationalist (Congress) or Leftist inclinations.
A teacher, strictly on the condition of anonymity, confided that grievance redressal mechanism in AMU is horribly bad. Here, corruption is sought to be perpetuated with repression, whereas, in other parts of the world a corrupt regime is usually more populist.
So, there is a long history of corruption in the Dining Halls of AMU and protest against it is often sought to be dealt with by harshest possible administrative repressions.
The issue has got greater "political" saliency probably because of the fact that the incumbent Provost is supposed to be the camp follower of the Finance Officer, against whom (along with the VC and the Registrar) the Principal Accountant General (and the UGC also) has already issued indictment in huge financial corruption and irregularities in November 2009, and whose recruitment as Deputy Finance Officer is also alleged to have been done with gross irregularity and is being enquired by a two judge enquiry, which is expected to submit its report shortly.
The students claim (and many insiders have confirmed) that some "strangers" associated with the Finance Officer's "gang" frequently come to the Provosts' Offices and are seen taking away cash from there. Such "strangers" do the same things with those teachers who are Member In Charge (MIC) of various bodies like the Land and Garden Department. In short, the offices, which are supposed to be seats of corruption (via kickbacks in supply, construction etc), are sights of the visits of such "strangers", who treat such departments/ offices as ever-milking cow. One such "stranger" is an ex-research (non-bonafide) student, who has direct accessibility to the Registrar, Controller of Exams and Admissions and of course to the Finance Officer.Are these "strangers" goons hired for hafta wasooli?
What the students are most worried about and feel that when the top brass are already indicted by the Principal Accountant General, and these tainted high functionaries are protecting the Provost then how could they expect justice. They are particularly angry with the Union Minister of Human Resource Development, who, in their perception, is not doing enough to bring the corrupt functionaries to book. They have therefore turned towards the Visitor. Meanwhile, the student supposedly leading the agitation has been put under suspension even though he is admitted in the University Health Centre. The Vice Chancellor did visit the Hall to interact with the students, but nothing could calm down the students, even while their exams are in progress. The VC is extremely busy in preparing his arguments before the two judge inquiry, as the inquiry committee has clarified that the inquiry is into/ against the person of the VC and not into/ against the AMU.
So the ghost of Prof. Siras and the issue of corruption in AMU have got intermingled.
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