Offended by new directives which allegedly include a ban on eating non-vegetarian food inside campus, the teaching and non-teaching staff of the National Institute of Technology (NIT) in Srinagar went on an indefinite strike. The staff said the protest was against the ‘‘saffronisation’’ of their institute.Chairman Mahraj Krishan Kaw and director S.K. Pandey are accused of embarking on a campaign to saffronise the institute. Kaw, say sources at NIT, has served as Education secretary to former HRD minister Murli Manohar Joshi.‘‘This is a part of the saffornisation programme. Everybody knows that M.K. Kaw is the propagator and the facilitator of the saffron ideology which is evident from his writings,’’ said Fayaz Ahmad Mir, senior lecturer and member, coordination committee.Disregarding the NIT policy, a retired bureaucrat was appointed chairman as against an academician or an industrialist, Mir added.The staff are up in arms against Pandey’s directive which bans the serving of non-vegetarian food on campus. ‘‘She has ordered the guesthouse and the hostel to stop serving non-veg, which smacks of her ideology,’’ said Mohammad Yaqoob Bafanda, a member of the coordination committee.‘‘She (Dr Pandey) is totally inexperienced and was appointed only due to her closeness with former HRD minister M.M. Joshi and Sushma Swaraj,’’ said convenor of the coordination committee, adding: ‘‘She (Pandey) went to campaign for them during the recent elections.’’To corroborate their claims against Kaw, the staff even quoted from his book Kashmir Pandits: Looking to their future — ‘‘I can see that one day Kashmir will again be a Hindu majority state as in old times. India cannot have peace in Kashmir if it’s not a Hindu majority state. We should work for the achievement of this goal.’’They are here to ruin this institute, alleged one of the teachers. ‘‘We have been sanctioned a project aided by the World Bank. The first installment of Rs nine crore for which has already come. They told us to spend it immediately to avail the next installment, but the director has not approved the proposal yet leave alone spending of money,’’ he added.Pandey, when contacted, denied the allegations. On the allegations of saffronisation, she said: ‘‘I am a Hindu, but I had no reservations when I was appointed to come here. It never comes to mind that I am a Hindu and he is a Muslim.’’However, asked about the alleged ban on non-vegetarian food on campus, she said: ‘‘The main reason for the strike is that these people do not want to work and like to run their private consultancies.’’
