‘Change its name if you have to… don’t end our careers’: At Jauhar University, a campus fears demolition, women voices loudest

With all but the medical college building and academic block to be spared, the demolition would virtually shut down Mohammad Ali Jauhar University, spread over 250 acres and founded almost 20 years ago by senior Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan. Under the BJP government in Uttar Pradesh, Azam Khan, who is the lifelong chancellor of the university, has had nearly a hundred cases registered against him, over 70 of them in 2019 alone, of which sources said nearly 30 are related to the university.

Shoaib is told by the ‘Student Counselling Centre’, operating from a tent at the gates of the university – manned by about 15 teachers and staff members from government colleges of Rampur – to not worry and that he will get his degree.

Farah and her friends, who are students of auxiliary nurse midwife course. (Express photo by Maulshree Seth)

However, the ripples won’t be confined to him or the other students, Shoaib observes. “In the 2011 Census, Rampur was the fifth lowest in Uttar Pradesh in literacy. We used to be made fun of. Imagine what will happen if the only university in the district is demolished.”

Three friends wearing hijabs and riding a Scooty fear the answer. “The government talks about Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao, but what about our education? Our parents will not let us go anywhere else,” says Farah, the one driving the Scooty. All three are pursuing the auxiliary nurse midwife course at the university.

The counselors assure them they would be “adjusted” in other colleges of their choice, but all three assert together: “We do not wish to go anywhere else.”

A senior official of the Maulana Mohd Ali Jauhar Trust, which runs the university, puts its student strength at about 2,400, enrolled in about 40 courses and diplomas, across 14 faculties such as science, law, humanities, commerce, Islamic studies, education, agriculture science, pharmacy. Most of the students are enrolled in professional courses such as paramedics and pharmacy. About one-third are women; a substantial number are Hindus.

Muslim-majority Rampur district has no other university, with the nearest being Government University and Guru Jambeshwar University in Moradabad, 50 km away. Most of the 30 college options the administration has drawn up for students of Jauhar University are affiliated to Guru Jambeshwar University. Set up just last year, Guru Jambeshwar does not have a campus yet, sources said.

Student Protest outside Mohd Ali Jauhar University, Rampur. (Express Photo)

The administration announced deployment of counselors at the Jauhar University gates along with the demolition notice, saying they would answer any queries the students have, including names of the colleges they can choose from. The counselors have been taking down the details of every student entering and exiting the campus, chasing after them if needed.

Jagriti Madan, who heads the centre and is Principal of Government Raza PG College, says students should not panic. “They can opt for any college (out of the 30). Five of these are government, the rest are private colleges affiliated to Guru Jambeshwar University, and have most of the courses offered at Jauhar University.”

On July 18, as students started a protest against the demolition order as well as the counselling centre – asking why it had been set up when there were still several days to go as per the demolition notice – the counselors shut operations.

While most students share their names at the centre, the degree they are pursuing and contact numbers, the anxiety keeps bubbling up. Apart from students, there are relatives at the campus, as well as former students, asking what the demolition means for them – “Would the degrees and diplomas given in the past be valid?”, they ask; and “Who will do verification of our degrees when we apply for jobs?”

In the registers held out by the counselors, some scribble a plea “not to raze the university as it will destroy our careers”. Most, however, are guarded and write a resigned “no problem”.

Verbally, though, the overarching question is why demolish the buildings, instead of imposing fines or taking similar action. Farah says the same: “If there are any irregularities, these can be corrected.”

Ansar Ali, who finished a pharmacy course at the university two years ago, says: “Forget another university, even the nearest college from here, Raza College, is a 30-minute ride. It will be girls who suffer the most, as they would be asked to sit at home now. Further, the fee structure will be more at other places. Jauhar University has various provisions for fee concession, making it less than other private universities.”

Mona Kamboj arrives a bit breathless at the counselling centre, saying she is here for one of her relatives who did B.Ed from Jauhar University. “She is worried if her degree is valid, and if she can apply for jobs with it,” she says.

In a tweet Wednesday, senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor called the demolition order “perverse”, particularly “in a state with a dearth of quality institutions of higher education”. “If construction was illegal, find other punishments — fines, other punitive measures, even government takeover — but do not destroy a functioning university that UP needs!” the MP tweeted.

Sources in the administration say the university has only two options – file an appeal with the Chairman of the Rampur Development Authority, who is also the Commissioner, Moradabad Division, or approach the court.

District Magistrate Ajay Dwivedi, who is Vice-Chairman of the Rampur Development Authority, says the university was given ample time to respond to the irregularities before being served the demolition notice. Not only were the maps of the buildings set to be razed were not approved, even land use was not changed from agriculture, he says. The authorities have said that records show that only the two university buildings not to be razed had valid building approvals.

The BJP has raised this to attack the SP, asking why its government which cleared the university in 2006 did not change the land use if it had the interests of the university in mind.

Of the 30-odd cases against Azam Khan related to the university, most are of alleged land grabbing for its expansion. One concerns government road cleaning machines allegedly found “buried” on the Jauhar University campus, others are about the reported recovery of stolen books and old manuscripts from a madarsa on the premises.

Azam Khan’s wife Tazeen Fatima, a member of the university trust, links what is happening to the “campaign” against her husband: “We have suffered enough… All he (Azam Khan) wanted was to create a university to uplift the community. In the past decade, our students have gone abroad for work, become officers, joined the judiciary… All these contributions cannot be negated.”

Questioning the deployment of police force outside the university and establishment of the counselling centre, Fatima, who was an assistant professor at Raza Government PG College till 2009, says: “It’s like they have already given a verdict… Hum khoon ke aakhiri katare tak ladte rahenge (We will keep fighting till the last drop of our blood).”

The fact that this is not the first time Jauhar University is facing the heat is, ironically, what Farah and her friends are clinging to. “We are sure that the university will not be demolished. There have been such rumors in the past as well,” she says.