AMU controversy: Unions back V-C against “biased media reports”

Shah, meanwhile, stood by his comment even as the HRD Ministry sought more details from him about rules which bar girls from accessing the main library.

Gulfiza Khan, president of the WCSU, who led the protest, accused the media of bias. “We had a genuine administrative issue, not of gender bias. We don’t feel discriminated against. For girls, AMU is perhaps the safest university in the world,” Gulfiza told The Indian Express.

The union also submitted a memorandum addressed to President Pranab Mukherjee condemning the “malicious and defamatory campaign of the national media”. It said some media outlets “presented the entire issue in a communal manner”.

While taking oath as WCSU president on Monday, Gulfiza had raised the issue of undergraduate girls being barred from the library. In a video clip circulating on social media, the V-C can be heard saying that granting permission to girls would bring “four times more boys” to the already packed MAL. Union HRD Minister Smriti Irani termed the statement an “insult to daughters”.

“This is not a new issue. The union raises it every year, but it always fizzles out. The union we elected is terming the same V-C who ridiculed this demand a father figure,” said a BA political science final year student requesting anonymity.

A history department student said, “I want the freedom to browse through shelves and read in the sitting rooms… At present, we have to go through a catalogue, select books and tell the library staff who delivers it the next day.”

According to data provided to The Indian Express by the college library, for the academic session 2013-14, 21 requests were received in the Women’s College library for books from MAL. Since July 2014, not a single request has been made. “Why are the number of requests so less?” asked Women’s College principal Dr Naima Gulrez. “Our (Women’s College) library has 53,000 books and digital records of over 6,000 journals. In addition, a student who wants books from MAL can place a request online. If our students were lacking study material, would this have been possible?” she said.

A third year student from the Chemistry department said the issue was much larger. “We have to seek permission from the warden every time we want to go to a shop or meet a faculty member or attend a lecture on the main campus. Our requests are turned down or we are told to wait for Sunday,” she said.

Gulrez, however, said, “There are no restrictions. Girls have to take permission if they are going out after college hours.”
Professor Irfan Habib, professor emeritus in the department of history, said the girls’ academic performance gets affected as they are restricted from accessing MAL.

The two unions which protested holding placards that read “Media… say sorry to our father, the VC” and “Daughters can’t be against their father” also slammed the HRD Ministry. “If the ministry is so concerned, it should sanction funds to upgrade the Women’s College library,” they said.

(With Hamza Khan in Lucknow)