Remove varsity heads with RSS links: Cong leader to Maha CM

Congress leader Ashish Deshmukh has written to Maharashtra Chief Minister asking him to remove heads of various universities who were appointed under the previous BJP-led government for being loyal to the RSS. He also asked the chief minister to restore universities into the hands of "deserving meritorious academicians."

Nagpur (Maharashtra): Congress leader Ashish Deshmukh has written to Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray asking him to remove heads of various universities who were appointed under the previous BJP-led dispensation for being loyal to the RSS and its Hindutva doctrine.

Deshmukh, a former MLA who was with the BJP before crossing over to the Congress, said such appointees were "poisoning the atmosphere" of these universities.

"Universities cannot and should not be permitted to be used as the breeding ground of dirty communalism, poisonous hatred, close door thinking, the invocation of dogmas, taboos..." Deshmukh wrote.

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He asked the chief minister to restore universities into the hands of "deserving meritorious academicians."

Incidentally, Higher and Technical Education Minister Uday Samant was asked for a comment on this issue during a press meet in Pune on June 11.

Queried about a Congress leader's statement seeking cancellation of appointment of "pro-RSS vice-chancellors", Samant had said it was not appropriate for him to comment as appointments of VCs are done by the governor.