Minority panel issues notice to JNU over prof’s remarks on Dalits, Muslims

New Delhi: The National Commission for Minorities has issued a notice to JNU authorities over a professor’s alleged remarks calling Dalits and Muslim teachers “anti-national”, days after the National Commission for Scheduled Caste issued a similar notice.

Amita Singh, who is the chairperson of the varsity’s school of governance has made the alleged comments in an interview to a web portal.

“A complaint has been received by the National Commission for Minorities regarding derogatory remarks by professor Amita Singh. You are hereby requested to submit the facts and information and the action taken on allegations/matter within five days of this notice,” the letter sent to the JNU Vice Chancellor said.

The varsity administration has already asked Singh to clarify her remarks after the VC had received a letter from the National Commission for Scheduled Castes on March 8.

On being asked by the interviewer “how many teachers and students in JNU are anti-national” in her interview to the website, the professor had said, “Teachers are hardly 10 but they portray as if everybody is with them. You think a teacher in an institution like JNU would be so stupid as to back anti-national slogans? These are just five or six persons and they are Dalits and Muslims. They have their grudges.”

The faculty member talks about anti-national activities in JNU, the family background of students’ union president Kanhaiya Kumar and another student Umar Khalid.

The teacher had also alleged about foreign funding to anti-nationals while claiming that Bijnore, from where one of the arrested JNU student hails, is a “den of terrorism and Islamic State.” According to the professor, one student still in custody believes in “strong Kashmiriyat”.

The professor has been maintaining that she was quoted out of context in the interview.

PTI