The recent student agitation to hold the admission test to Allahabad University offline too — apart from online, as the university was planning — figured in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday, with the Samajwadi Party taking up the issue.
MP Arvind Kumar Singh dubbed the idea of an exclusive online test as against the interests of rural students and asked the government to intervene.
In reply, HRD Minister Smriti Irani said the University had conveyed that it wanted an offline admission, too, because of pressure from a political party.
“However, since we are equidistant from any administrative matter, we have noted that the university would like to provide, apart from online admission, off-line admissions also,” she added.
When Ram Gopal Yadav (SP) said that the university Vice-Chancellor had alleged interference by the Centre, Ms. Irani named the Samajwadi Party as the one that had threatened the Vice-Chancellor and the administration.
Clean chit Meanwhile, there were reports that a day after alleging political interference, Vice-Chancellor R.M. Hangloo gave a clean chit to the HRD Ministry in a purported letter to Rajya Sabha Chairman Hamid Ansari, saying there was no interference from the Ministry.
‘No letter received’ A senior official in Mr. Ansari’s office, however, told The Hindu that no such letter had been received yet.
On Tuesday, the V-C had reportedly alleged political interference and asked the government to install an MP or an MLA at the post if this was the way the university was to be run.
