Uttarakhand cabinet rejects proposal to name varsity after Vajpayee

Atal Bihari Vajpayee

The Uttarakhand cabinet on Wednesday rejected a proposal to rename the Himalayan Garhwal University, a private varsity, after former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

After the cabinet meeting, government spokesperson Madan Kaushik initially told reporters that a proposal to make an amendment to the Himalayan Garhwal University Act, 2016, and rename the university after Vajpayee had been approved.

However, in the evening, the government communicated that the proposal had been rejected. When contacted and asked for the reason the proposal was rejected, Kaushik said, “That will be told later.”

Meanwhile, Higher Education Minister Dhan Singh Rawat told The Indian Express, “Atal ji was Prime Minister and honoured with the Bharat Ratna. So, the government has to be sure that the profile of the university proposed to be named after him is of that stature… This university is in its infancy and there are only around 250 students so far.”

Rawat also said that if the government were to rename any university after Vajpyee, it would prefer a government university and not a private one.

A senior government official said, “The proposal to rename the university after former PM Vajpayee had come from that university itself. Since the university has been established under an Act enacted by the state government, the proposal was tabled in the cabinet. But the proposal was rejected.”

The official added, “Cabinet members were not satisfied with the profile of university. They did not find it worthwhile to be named after a great personality like Atal Bihari Vajpayee.”

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