New Delhi: Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) has appointed its first woman vice-chancellor, professor Naima Khatoon, during the ongoing Lok Sabha elections.
Her appointment came just days ahead of the Lok Sabha elections in Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh that went to the polls on Friday (April 26).
This is also noteworthy as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) woos Muslim women voters with its pitch of having removed triple talaq, and allowing women to travel for Hajj unaccompanied by a male companion.
Khatoon was appointed on Monday (April 22) by President Droupadi Murmu after the Union government was allowed to go ahead with the appointment by the Election Commission of India under which the Model Code of Conduct is in place in view of the ongoing Lok Sabha elections.
“The President of lndia, in her capacity as the Visitor of AMU, has been pleased to appoint Professor Naima Khatoon, Professor/Principal, Women’s College, as the Vice-Chancellor of the Aligarh Muslim University for a period of five (5) years from the date on which she enters upon his office or the date on which she completes seventy years of age, whichever is earlier,” the Union education ministry said in a notification to AMU. The Wire has seen a copy of the notification.
The letter stated that the appointment was allowed during the ongoing Model Code of Conduct, subject to the condition that “no publicity shall be there and no political mileage may be derived from it.”
Khatoon’s appointment comes a year after Tariq Mansoor’s tenure as vice-chancellor ended in April 2023. Months after Mansoor’s term ended, in July 2023, he was appointed as BJP’s vice president and is also a member of the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council. Mansoor is also a Pasmanda Muslim, a community that the BJP has been wooing. He had been the vice-chancellor when the AMU campus saw violence during the CAA/NRC protests.
Since Mansoor’s tenure ended in April last year, the university had been functioning under acting vice-chancellor Mohammad Gulrez-Khatoon’s husband.
Khatoon’s nomination for the post of vice-chancellor has been under a cloud of controversy after her husband, then acting vice-chancellor, Gulrez, chaired a meeting which was to shortlist the candidates.
According to The Indian Express, on October 30, the 27-member Executive Council, the university’s highest decision-making body, chose five names of the 20 eligible, out of a total of 36 applicants for the post. The five shortlisted names were sent to the AMU Court, a 193-member body, which includes 10 MPs and five visitor’s nominees.
The report added that during the meeting, one of the members of the Executive Council suggested that Gulrez should refrain from voting as his wife’s name was in contention. Another member concurred.
He had then said that there was “no conflict of interest”.
A petition had been filed in the Allahabad high court against challenging the selection process. The petition said that the the final three candidates shortlisted for the vice-chancellor’s post at a meeting headed by Gulrez, on November 6, included Khatoon, who had received 50 votes, against the two other candidates M. Uruj Rabbani (former dean of Faculty of Medicine, AMU) and Faizan Mustafa (noted jurist and former VC of National Law University, Nalsar), got 61 and 53 votes, respectively, reported Press Trust of India.
The petition, however, was dismissed by the court.
According to the AMU website, Khatoon, who has been an alumni of the century-old central university, served as professor and chairperson of the Department of Psychology before joining as principal, Women’s College, in July 2014. She was professor since July 2006, associate professor since April 1998 and lecturer since August 1988.
She has also co-authored/written/edited six books.
The Wire has reached out to AMU PRO Omar Peerzada for a comment. This report will be updated when a response is received.
