Lifelong AMU man, divisive figure, Tariq Mansoor vaults into UP Legislative Council

According to a professor at the university, Mansoor is part of a “typical Muslim elite circle” that is out of touch with ground realities. “The whole ecosystem tunes out the ground reality for its gain,” said the professor.

The V-C’s detractors said he would be remembered as an “inefficient one”. A faculty member said, “One of the biggest failures of his will be that we don’t have his permanent successor. He is leaving the university in a lurch.” Another professor said, “There are so many other aspects too. His tenure has been marked by sycophancy for the BJP government, its leaders and the RSS. He regularly parrots what the BJP says. The latest example is his piece in newspapers criticising the BBC documentary on Prime Minister Narendra Modi. There are so many other aspects too. He is a puppet.”

Mansoor’s biggest challenge as V-C was the protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the proposed National Register of Citizens (NRC) in 2019-’20 and then the pandemic that began in 2020. He was criticised for “not standing up for students” when policemen allegedly barged into the university and assaulted students in December 2019 when anti-CAA-NRC protests were at their peak. “He did nothing. Students were beaten up on the night of December 15 but he stayed within the campus and didn’t leave his home. We felt abandoned,” said a former member of the AMU Students’ Council.

Asked about the allegation that he parrots the BJP line, Mansoor told The Indian Express, “On all issues, I have spoken on merit. I have always represented the university on all forums very well. All the decisions of the varsity are taken by the executive council and academic council.”

In an open letter on Tuesday after his resignation, Mansoor expressed regret for “not being able to conclude the process for appointment” of his successor “due to unavoidable circumstances”. “I request you to kindly condone it,” he wrote.

He added that he was “blessed to have had the opportunity to lead AMU into the centenary” in 2020. Mansoor wrote, “A sitting Prime Minister Shri Narendra Bhai Modi graced our University function — Centenary Year Celebrations 2020 — after a gap of 64 years. Lauding AMU’s contributions towards nation-building, PM’s speech will be remembered as an important landmark in AMU’s history in which he also called AMU a ‘mini India’ … As our nation enters the path of ‘new India’ and acquires the centre stage in world affairs with G20 Presidency, I am sure the University will play an important role in the continued development of our nation.”

The newly appointed MLC told The Indian Express that he was “very popular with the current students” and “represented the university very well on all forums during his tenure”. Asked about the allegation that he did not stand with students “during the protests in December 2019”, Mansoor said, “If students indulge in indiscipline, how could I stand with them? If there is a law-and-order issue, then the university cannot deal with it. There were rumours spread during the protests and some students jumped the gate. They were outside the university and they couldn’t be my responsibility at the time. All this is in CCTV (footage), when stones were pelted, a gate was brought down. A team of the National Human Rights Commission also came to the university and the Allahabad High Court also inquired into this matter, and all of them said the allegations weren’t true. This is all on record. We also got an inquiry done. The report said nothing had happened.”

A faculty member empathised with Mansoor, saying he did what was required of him. “He couldn’t have ignored the BJP because they are the party in power. Many forget that today’s time is not like earlier when the BJP was merely a political party. Today, they are in power at the Centre and in UP. If a V-C wants to work for a university, he has to be close to the government. It is part of the job in today’s time.”

AMU public relations in-charge Faisal Fareed said the V-C added a personal touch to the job while in office. “He would remember specifics. Mansoor sir also has an eye for minute details and is a keen observer of everything.”

Career at AMU

Mansoor, a surgeon, has been associated with AMU since the 1970s when he completed his MBBS degree in surgery from the university’s J N Medical College. He then went on to do his Master of Surgery (MS) degree in 1982 from the same college. Except for two years spent at the King Fahad Teaching Hospital in Saudi Arabia, Mansoor worked at AMU from 1980 till Tuesday.

Mansoor, whose father Hafeezul Rehman was a professor at the university, was appointed the Chief Medical Officer of the college in 1983 and since then held several important posts at the university and the J N Medical College, where he served as the Principal and Chief Medical Superintendent. He has been a member of the AMU Executive Council thrice for a total of 12 years and was also a member of the Medical Council of India from 2015 to 2018. Mansoor, whose son Mohammad Nasir is currently an associate professor at the Law Department, eventually assumed charge as V-C in 2017.

During the pandemic, AMU “facilitated the operationalisation of one of the first Nodal Laboratory (ICMR Project) in Uttar Pradesh for ‘free-of-cost testing’ of Covid-19 virus at JNMC. The laboratory played an important role in the testing and tracing of the virus in western UP.