NEW DELHI: Sidelined by the current BJP leadership, party veteran Murli Manohar Joshi on Thursday broke his silence and threw his weight behind the agitating students by backing their demands for the removal of the vice-chancellor of JNU M Jagadesh Kumar.“(The) VC shouldn’t be allowed to continue in this post,” tweeted Joshi, who was the HRD minister in the NDA government during Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
“Reports are that the HRD Ministry had twice advised the JNU, VC, to implement certain reasonable and working formula for resolving the issue of the enhanced fees in the JNU. He was also advised to reach out to the students and teachers,” he said in the tweet.
Joshi is the first voice from the BJP to back the agitating students against the JNU Vice-Chancellor.
“It’s shocking that the VC is adamant for not implementing the government proposal. This attitude is deplorable and in my opinion such a VC shouldn’t be allowed to continue on this post,” Joshi stated in his statement put out on Twitter.
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Joshi, who along with BJP patriarch Lal Krishna Advani, is a member of the party’s ‘Margdarshak Mandal’, has been silent on party and government affairs since both he and Advani were sidelined.
He wasn’t given the party ticket to contest the Lok Sabha elections after the party had decided on the 75-year age ceiling for electoral politics, though the saffron outfit has afterwards made a few exceptions in the Assembly elections.