The Rashtrapati Bhawan has returned a file from the HRD Ministry that had recommended names to fill a vacant seat on the AMU’s executive council. President Pranab Mukherjee’s office, it is learnt, has sought a bigger panel of names. The Ministry had recommended names of India TV editor-in-chief Rajat Sharma and Vijay P Bhatkar, the man behind the country’s first supercomputer, and president of Vijnana Bharati, an RSS-affiliated organisation involved with the Swadeshi Science Movement, for the post. Sources said the Rashtrapati Bhawan returned the file, asking the ministry to send more names for the university’s top executive body, which has 28 members, three of which are recommended by the ministry. HRD Ministry officials termed it a “routine affair”.
