A number of History academics of AMU, JNU and Delhi University on 9 May adopted a resolution objecting to and criticising AMU Vice Chancellor Lt. General (retd.) Zamiruddin Shah’s remarks on BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Mr. Narendra Modi in an interview published in The Times of India on 7 May 2014.
The resolution said inter alia: “…we are surprised at the General’s remarks on Mr Narendra Modi. He foresees much improvement in the latter when he assumes responsibilities of power as Prime Minister, as if he did not have power enough when as Chief Minister he presided over the communal slaughter in Gujarat. We are perplexed as to why the General needed to go out of his way to commend Mr Modi in this fashion.”
The signatories to the resolution released by the Deputy Coordinator, Centre of Advanced Study in History, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, are Irfan Habib, Professor Emeritus, AMU; D.N. Jha, Professor of History (Retd.), Delhi University; P.K. Shukla, Formerly, Member Secretary, Indian Council of Historical Research; I.A. Khan, Professor of History (Retd.), AMU; Shireen Moosvi, Professor of History (Retd.), AMU; Mridula Mukherjee, Professor of History, J.N.U.; Ramesh Rawat, Professor of Hindi, AMU; S.A. Nadeem Rezavi, Associate Professor, AMU; Aditya Mukherjee, Professor of History, J.N.U.; Farhat Hasan, Professor of History, Delhi University; S.Zaheer Husain Jafri, Professor of History, Delhi University; Ishrat Alam, Associate Professor of History, AMU; and Shalin Jain, Associate Professor, Delhi University.