BHU students protest against Nita Ambani’s appointment as Visiting Professor.
Byline By- Vinayak Heliwal
Banaras Hindu University (BHU) students on Tuesday staged a protest against the proposed appointment of Nita Ambani, the Reliance Foundation Chairperson and Working Director of Reliance Industries, as a visiting faculty on the BHU Campus.
The proposal of appointing Nita Ambani as a visiting professor is being opposed by the students as they see it as a ‘wrong example’ being set by the university.
On Tuesday, several students protested outside the residence of Vice-Chancellor Rakesh Bhatnagar on the campus and submitted a memorandum which states that University should not be ‘privatized’.
For the unversed, Recently the BHU University’s Social Sciences Faculty had sent a proposal to Reliance Foundation, asking Nita Ambani to join the university as a visiting faculty at their Women Study Centre.
While the proposal has been sent not only to Nita Ambani, but the authorities confirmed that the other two names considered for the remaining two visiting faculty posts were that of Priti Adani, the Wife of Billionaire Industrialist Gautam Adani and Usha Mittal, the wife of UK based steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal.
Research scholar Shubhman Tiwary who was among the protesting students alleged that the step of appointment of Nita Ambani is a part of the big conspiracy.
He added that We are setting up the wrong example. Being the wife of a rich person is not an achievement and these people cannot be our icons. If you talk out women empowerment, then invite icons like Arunima Sinha, Bachendri Pal, Mary Kom, or Kiran Bedi.
Meanwhile, Professor Nidhi Sharma Coordinator of the Centre for Women’s Studies and Development said that the proposal to make Nita Ambani a visiting professor has been sent to the authorities. She Said,” Ambani is a women entrepreneur . If she joins our centre, the women of Purvanchal will get the benefit of her experience”.
However in a bid to convince the students who were protesting the top officials including the Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences came to the protest site and said that no such decisions have been finalized yet.