The Chaudhary Charan Singh University (CCSU) in Uttar Pradesh’s Meerut on Saturday barred a political science professor from examination and evaluation work for life after she allegedly set a question paper with two ‘objectionable’ questions related to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).
Professor Seema Panwar, the head of the political science department in Meerut College, was banned by the university after the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), which is affiliated to the RSS, staged a protest and submitted a memorandum.
ABVP accused her of being “afflicted with some anti-national ideology.”
According to The Wire, the controversy surrounded the private MA political science final-year examination on the paper ‘State Politics in India,’ conducted on April 2 in the colleges affiliated to the CCSU.
The paper had two multiple-choice questions (MCQs) linked to the RSS: Question 87 asked which of the following were considered anomic groups – those alienated from society. Among the options were “Dal Khalsa, Naxalite Groups, Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front and Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh.” Question 93 seemed to link the RSS to the rise of religious and caste identity politics.
Professor Panwar submitted a written apology to the university administration and said that the probable answers mentioned in the question paper were from the textbook and not out of the syllabus.
“The book by M Lakshmikant is authorised in the CCSU curriculum in the Political Science stream and puts the RSS at the top of the religious pressure group. Hence, it was one of the choices,” Panwar explained.
