BHU caught in UP political crossfire
Sumit Pande
CNN-IBN
SAFFRON AGENDA: BHU is caught in a political crossfire just ahead of UP polls.
New Delhi: The run-up to the crucial Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections seem to be kicking up much storm, with political rivalries in the state overshadowing all other concerns.
Caught in the political crossfire are the citizens of the state, public figures and even institutions.
Banaras Hindu University, once the seat of educational excellence in India, is the latest to be involved in a political battle after the University registrar issued show cause notices to 116 teachers for attending an RSS function in the city.
The issue has now snowballed into a political crisis. "Just because its an RSS function, so this dispute," Kalyan Singh Former CM, UP
For the Congress, it’s a ticklish issue, especially with the recent civic polls in the state indicating that the BJP has regained some lost ground among the upper castes and no one knows it better than the Congress MP from Varanasi, Rajesh Mishra.
"VC should be held accountable. How did he allow this meeting to be conducted on the university premises?" Mishra said.
But the HRD ministry, busy with its detoxification drive, has backed BHU authorities on the issue.
“The step must have been taken under specific rules by the BHU administration,” said Minister of State for Human Resource Development, M A A Fatmi.
With polls just round the corner, the Congress not only has to regain its lost minority votes, but also has to make a dent into the BJP's upper caste vote bank.
But in a state where just about anything and everything can be converted into a political contest of sorts, the latest crisis could well be one that could swing fortunes as the race for UP battleground hots up.