Chandigarh : Shiromani Akali Dal (Badal ) president Sukhbir Singh Badal decried the “brazen communal discrimination practised in the Punjab University “ as not even a single Sikh has been appointed as its Vice Chancellor since 1947.
He demanded that a deserving and eminent Sikh academician should be made the Vice Chancellor now that the post has fallen vacant following the resignation of the incumbent.
“The Panjab University today truly and exclusively symbolised the proud intellectual and cultural identity of the present day Punjab formed as a Punjabi speaking state, ” he said.
In a letter to the Vice President of India, who is also the Chancellor of the University, Badal said “It is shocking that in nearly 76 years of Independent India, this university named after a state which is not only the birth place but also the cradle of Sikhism, has not had a single Vice Chancellor belonging to this community. Its like the Benaras or the Aligarh Muslim University or the Oxford and Harvard universities never having a Hindu, a Muslim or a Christian respectively as their Vice Chancellor.”
Sukhbir Badal said that his party symbolised the secular and liberal message of the great Guru Sahiban and was against any communal discrimination in any form anywhere. “It is not our case that only Sikhs be appointed to key posts here. But it certainly is our case that the Sikhs must not be systematically kept out of every position of any importance in this institution- as is clearly the case at present.”
Badal also said that the discrimination was not limited to the appointment of Vice Chancellors alone but runs right down the line.”Of the 36 nominated members to the University Senate, just two are Sikhs. There is no Sikh among the 14 holding key academic or administrative posts, including the Dean University Instruction, Comptroller Exams, FDO, SVC, Dean Students Welfare. At present, for the first time, neither the VC nor the Registrar of the University is from the Sikh community. Worse, a vast majority of those appointed to these key positions are not even Punjabis.”
In his letter, Badal said that the Punjab University was set up primarily to function as the professional , academic, intellectual and cultural soul and conscience of the people of Punjab, which for centuries has been identified as the land of the Gurus and the birth place and cradle of Sikh religion, ethos and culture. He said that apart from functioning as a vehicle of professional, intellectual and academic excellence, the university was also supposed to act as the guardian of the local socio-religious and cultural identity, especially of the dominant stream of this .
“Since 1966, the University has remained the soul, the mind and the conscience of the present day Punjab formed on the basis of the Punjabi language with Gurmukhi script as its mother tongue. Harayana and Himachal Pardesh are no longer associated with this university as none of their colleges remains its constituent academic unit.
