MUMBAI: After three days of ABVP protest, the principal of Indore’s New Law College, Dr Inamur Rahman, resigned on Saturday. “I am deeply pained by the protests by college students and unknown outsiders. This, after everything I’ve done for the development of the college. All the accusations are baseless and untrue, and have deeply hurt me,” Rahman told TOI after sending his resignation to the Directorate of Higher Education (DHE).
The ABVP, a right-wing saffron students’ outfit, has been protesting on campus since Thursday, first accusing some professors of promoting “love jihad” and “propagating religious extremism”, and then objecting to the book “Collective Violence and Criminal Justice System”, by Dr Farhat Khan, which is in the college library. The book is now being subjected to a police probe and the DHE wants it removed from all colleges. Dr Farhat Khan could not be contacted for comment.
The FIR against Rahman, Prof Mirza Mojij, Dr Farhat Khan and Amar Law Publications was filed at Bhanwarkuan police station after Madhya Pradesh home minister Narottam Mishra ordered Indore police commissioner Harinarayanchari Mishra to “conduct a probe into ABVP’s allegations of anti-national and objectionable content in the book”.
“We have also received complaints of professors teaching out of syllabus. Anti-national issues have also surfaced. Complaints like getting students to cast votes on Article 370, and issues of love jihad have also surfaced. We will take strict action,” Mishra told reporters in Bhopal.
On Thursday, the first day of the ABVP protest, six professors were taken off duty to “facilitate a probe” by the college into allegations made by the saffron unit. On Saturday, too, ABVP activists continued protesting, demanding Rahman’s resignation.
Soon after he resigned, Bhanwarkuan police booked him and the three others. “We received a complaint from LLM student Lucky Adiwal that the principal and a professor of the college were asking students to refer to a book written by Dr Farhat Khan, which encouraged ‘animosity between religions and promoted enmity between groups’,” Bhanwarkuan police station in-charge Shashikant Chourasia said.
BJP claimed that the book was banned, but higher education officials couldn’t confirm to TOI. BJP state president VD Sharma said, “How did this book find a place in the library after being banned several years ago, and why? Why did the professors advocate the content of the book? Such people should be jailed.” A senior DHE official said on condition of anonymity, “This book hasn’t been banned officially. In 2021, after some issues were raised, the author apologised and it was recalled by the publisher.”
The FIR has prompted a check for the book across the state. “Law colleges in MP will be asked to check their libraries and remove the book,” said a DHE official.