No intention to rename AMU, BHU: Javadekar

NEW DELHI: The human resource development (HRD) ministry has denied planning any move to drop the words 'Muslim' and 'Hindu' from the names of Aligarh Muslim University and Banaras Hindu University, respectively.

Replying to queries on an audit report that supposedly suggested the dropping of the words, HRD minister Prakash Javadekar said in Ahmedabad on Monday, "No such decision is being taken, and neither does the government have any such intention."

Javadekar said: "AMU and BHU are very old institutions and we have no intention of changing their names. We have set up a committee for administrative, academic and research audit. What the committee suggested in the report, I am not aware of, but there is no such intention."

When asked about the report describing AMU as "feudal" in nature and that the majority of faculty appointments were former students, the minister said: "The report has not yet reached us and we will be able to comment only after we get the report."

TOIhad, in March, first reported that the government felt that some of the country's most prestigious universities are underperforming, and hence, asked the UGC to audit them for their academic and research quality.