The decks have been cleared for the establishment of a Central university in Srirangapatna even as the Union Ministry of Minority Affairs will take it up with the Ministry of Human Resource Development for a Central legislation for it.
“It will be named after Tipu Sultan,” Union Minister for Minority Affairs K Rahman Khan told Express.
“What is the harm in naming the university after a man who has contributed so much to Srirangapatna?” Khan asked.
“Those who oppose (it) are not doing the right thing. The names of those who have made true contributions to the rich heritage and culture of a particular place should be remembered. The university will be named after Tipu Sultan,” he reiterated.
An expert committee headed by Indian Council for Social Science Research chairman Sukhadeo Thorat had given its green signal for the Ministry of Minority Affairs to establish five other Central universities in places predominantly inhabited by minority sections of the population.
The places include Murshidabad (West Bengal), Mallapuram (Kerala), Kishanganj (Bihar), Ajmer (Rajasthan) and Raebareli (Uttar Pradesh). The ministry has approached the MHRD for a legislation to set up these universities, a press release stated.
The BJP government had staunchly opposed naming the university after Tipu Sultan, who they termed a ‘murderer’.
The then higher education minister C T Ravi had remarked, “It is like setting up a university named after Adolf Hitler in Israel.”
‘Minority Focus’
Meanwhile, Prof Thorat, who did not reveal finer details of the recommendations of his report, clarified that there is no provision in the Constitution for the setting up of a university exclusively for a minority community.
“The minorities can set up their own institutions, but not exclusively for minorities. These proposed Central universities will only focus on minority sections under existing legal provisions,” he said. He cited the examples of Aligarh Muslim University (Aligarh) and others.
“All these are Central universities and focus on minorities, but are not exclusive for them,” he maintained.
