AMU PhD awardee accuses university of harassing him for praising PM; University denies

ALIGARH: An AMU’s PhD scholar on Thursday accused his varsity of harassing him for praising Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a social media post after his address to the varsity during its centenary celebration last December.

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PhD degree holder Dr Danish Rahim alleged that the Aligarh Muslim University changed the subject of his degree in a bid to render him ineligible for appointment as a faculty member in a department, relating to which he had pursued the course to secure the degree.

Dr Rahim told media persons on Thursday that he had pursued a PhD course in Language for Advertising, Marketing & Media (LAMM) but he has been awarded a PhD degree in linguistic, rendering him ineligible for appointment as a faculty member open to people having a PhD degree in LAMM. I am being penalised by the AMU for praising the prime minister, he alleged.

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The AMU, however, trashed his allegations saying that it was an inadvertent clerical error and the University would rectify the mistake after it came to its knowledge. Dr Rahim’s allegations are “patently false and without an iota of truth” and dragging the prime minister’s name in the whole episode is unfortunate and uncalled for, AMU spokesperson Shafey Kidwai said. The varsity has also set up a committee of its independent faculty members to look into the lapse as well as Dr Rahim’s allegations, he added.