Shiromani Akali Dal president Sukhbir Singh Badal on Tuesday decried the “brazen communal discrimination practiced in the Panjab University “ as not even a single Sikh has been appointed as its Vice Chancellor since 1947. He demanded that a deserving and eminent Sikh academician should be made the Vice Chancellor now that the post has fallen vacant following the resignation of the incumbent.
“The Panjab University today truly and exclusively symbolises the proud intellectual and cultural identity of present-day Punjab formed as a Punjabi-speaking state,” he said.
In a letter to the Vice President of India, who is also the Chancellor of the University, Badal said “It is shocking that in nearly 76 years of Independent India, this university named after a state which is not only the birthplace but also the cradle of Sikhism, has not had a single Vice Chancellor belonging to this community. It's like the Benaras or the Aligarh Muslim University or the Oxford and Harvard universities never having a Hindu, a Muslim or a Christian respectively as their Vice Chancellor.”
“It is not our case that only Sikhs be appointed to key posts here. But it certainly is our case that the Sikhs must not be systematically kept out of every position of any importance in this institution- as is clearly the case at present", he added