The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) has again indicated that only Hindus were qualified to teach at the Sanskrit Vidya Dharma Vigyan Department of the Banaras Hindu University (BHU).
On the controversy over the removal of Muslim teacher Feroze Khan, RSS ideologue and its joint general secretary Krishna Gopal has said that the department is about the teaching of Hindu rituals.
Gopal was speaking at an event in the national capital celebrating the 158 birth anniversary of Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya, who was also the founder of the BHU.
"When the BHU was set up in 1916, before that an Act was passed in Parliament in 1915. There were two clauses in it -- one, the religious education for the Hindu students will be compulsory, and the second was, no non-Hindu would be the member of the court of the university. Later, both the clauses were removed," he said.
He said that the objective of the department was to give religious education to Hindu children. Those who are interested in Hindu rituals and religion, they have to come and teach, he added.
"Till 1952, religious education was compulsory in every department of the BHU for Hindu children, but later on it became optional. But the department kept working," said he.
Gopal stated that there is a separate Sanskrit Department in the university.
"Whether Christian or Muslim teaches there, it does not make any difference. But at Sanskrit Vidya Dharma Vigyan Department, since the time of Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya, those who can perform Hindu rituals can teach it," he said.
It is worth mentioning that faculty and former professors of the BHU had come out in support of the students opposing the appointment of Firoze Khan to the Sanskrit Vidya Dharma Vigyan Department. Finally, Khan resigned from the department and joined the Arts Faculty of the university.
( With inputs from ANI )