The HRD Ministry on Wednesday dismissed Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Yogendra Yadav as Member UGC. In a letter to Yadav, the Ministry decided to “retire” Yadav from the commission with immediate effect.
Yadav was served notice by HRD Ministry and asked why he should not be removed from UGC due to his affiliation to a political party. But Yadav took on the Government by questioning its pick and choose policy.
To Yadav’s question as to why the Ministry did not initiate action for so long even though it was aware about his political leanings, the Ministry said that “delay in action can never be taken as the ground for not taking action at all and he did not formally bring it to the notice of Government after he joined AAP”.
In response to Yadav’s arguments that President of Socialist Party Acharya Narendra Dev was appointed Vice-Chancellor of two universities by the then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, the Ministry said that UGC was constituted only in 1956 by an Act and Acharya’s appointment was much earlier. Ministry also cited that Dr S Radhakrishnan Commission on education pointed out that UGC should be kept far away from any political affiliations or impact.
Yadav’s letter had also pointed about several MPs running educational institutes and private universities. But the Ministry said that references to MPs are not at all relevant in the instant matter and this is just an attempt by Yadav to mislead. On the issue of conflict of interest, the Ministry said that monetary compensation is not the sole determinant of “interest”.