In first remarks after quitting the history department of the Jamia Millia Islamia,professor Mushirul Hasan has questioned the naked aggression on the rights of teachers and politics in an institution that must grow. Hasan,a former JMI vice-chancellor,quit the university last month following a row over a letter he wrote to his colleagues,alleging harassment by the Dean of Faculty of Humanities and Languages. Hasan was asked to explain his absence from class but he maintained that he had been present at the department on the dates mentioned. His relieving letter states,.the officiating vice-chancellor has very kindly accepted the request from Prof Mushirul Hasan,Department of History and Culture,regarding voluntary retirement from the services,waiving the condition of three months notice as per CCS (Pension) Rule 48-A,with immediate effect. Terming the letter rude Hasan said he was hoping to retire in three months but was asked to leave. My being hounded is an agenda that started in 1992 (when he was Pro-VC). I continued till they managed to get rid of me. This is evident from the speed with which the request for my voluntary retirement was handled, he said. Since the university is without a full-time vice-chancellor it has to find a successor to Najeeb Jung who took charge as the Lt Governor of Delhi in July Hasan said he was shocked that the man doing this wasnt even a full-time vice-chancellor. He said bureaucratic interventions by the administration were accepted by the teachers out of fear or sheer intimidation and that this culture must change. As a teacher,he said,he was accountable to his students,none of whom had complained to the authorities about his absence. Even before I had left the university,they removed my name from the Jamia website, he said. Hasan had returned to Jamia on May 15 after his tenure as Director General of the National Archives ended. He received his relieving letter from the office of the Registrar on September 29. On the names doing the rounds for the next Jamia V-C,Hasan said,Im completely against a non-academic V-C and this is not against any individual. But I would like the government to send such people to Delhi University and Jawaharlal Nehru University. Why play politics in an institution that must grow? He believes that the move to bring in a non-academic vice-chancellor amounts to stereotyping of the assumption that these are troubled places and Muslims are to be tamed by strong men. On one hand,there is talk of empowering Muslims in the light of the Sachar Committee and,on the other hand,there is stifling by giving institutions to bureaucrats, Hasan said.
