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Mulayam stirs hornet's nest over LU renaming

Teachers, students stage dharna to lodge their protest All political parties have refrained from making any direct comment on the proposal

LUCKNOW: Even as the Mulayam Singh Yadav Government remains adamant on renaming Lucknow University (LU) after the former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister, Chandra Bhanu Gupta, the protest of varsity teachers and students has spilled on to city roads.

The Assembly had already passed the amendment in the Act to prefix Chandra Bhanu Gupta to LU, while the teachers and students statged a day-long dharna and marched up to Raj Bhawan to lodge their protest.

The Governor, T V Rajeswar, who had met the LU alumuni and other citizens' bodies opposing the change, had informed them that he had a `very little' say in the matter.

After the Maulana Jauhar Ali University, this was the second episode before the Governor when several delegations have met him demanding his intervention over a varsity issue.

The LU Executive Council had already turned down the proposal of the State Government to rename the varsity, while a delegation of LU alumuni met the Governor to request him not to give his assent to the proposal.

Hue and cry

Mr. Rajeswar was yet to approve setting up of the Maulana Jauhar Ali University at Rampur which was mooted by the State Urban Development Minister, Mohd Azam Khan.

The Governor was sitting over the two Bills passed by the State legislature, one for setting up the specialised university in the private sector and the other for a State-owned university, both in the name of Maulana Jauhar Ali.

However, the State Revenue minister, Ambika Choudhury, said here on Sunday that an unnecessary hue and cry was being raised on the LU issue. ``We have only prefixed the name of the former CM to LU,'' he added.

Meanwhile, all political parties refrained from making any direct comment on the proposal.

While the BJP MLA ,Narendra Singh Gaur, raised the matter in the Assembly claiming it was a `dishonour' to LU since Mr Gupta was not an educationist, the BJP legislature party leader and Leader of the Opposition Lalji Tandon said the issue should not be politicised.

A BSP leader claimed the only reason for the decision to rename the LU was to counter the BSP effort to woo the Vaish community. Loss of identity

During the meeting of the LU Executive Council, the members felt changing the name would amount to a loss of identity. Pro V-C, R S Yadav, said the Executive had passed a resolution against the renaming of the varsity founded in 1920.

Earlier, a five-member delegation of senior citizens and academics had called on the Governor and urged him to intervene in the matter. The delegation comprised former LU V-Cs Roop Rekha Verma, M S Sodha, besides SM Jafar, Mohini Manglik and Ram Advani.

- UNI.

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