Assam names 2 colleges after DDU

Students, youth organisations staged many protests against it

Defying the oppositon, Assam education minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Wednesday inaugurated two colleges named after RSS ideologue Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Adarsh Mahavidyalaya, one in Bongaigaon and another in Golaghat district.

On August 4, Mr Sharma’s announcement — the decision to set up model degree colleges had sparked angry reaction from various groups. Students and youth organisations such as the All Assam Students’ Union, the Asom Jatiyatabadi Yuba Chatra Parishad, the Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti, and the Students’ Federation of India, along with opposition parties, leading intellectuals, litterateurs, artists, scientists, and educationists, had joined the protest.

They demanded that the government should abandon the idea of naming the degree colleges after Deen Dayal Upadhyay who is barely known to the state.

The intellectuals and some litterateurs wanted that these colleges should be named after cultural, literary icons, freedom fighters and renowned personalities of Assam.

The Asom Gana Parishad, a partner in the government, also opposed the decision and sought a review. However, the state’s education minister refused to budge and went ahead with their plan.

He stated that it was not the people but few intellectuals who are opposing colleges in the name of Deen Dayal Upadhyaya.

Mr Sarma said, “If some intellectuals, propagating left ideology in Assam, say that they do not know Deen Dayal Upadhyaya, it is nothing but their intellectual bankruptcy.”

The Assam BJP also stood by the decision of the government.

Assam BJP president Ranjit Kumar Dass said, “Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyaya was a philosopher. He is an ideologue of the BJP. We must shed the narrow outlook with which we are trying to look at Assam. We are part of Indian society and Assam [is] a soul of Indian society. If Assam needs to be protected then India must be protected first.”