BHU HoD apologises post controversy on Iqbal's photo on poster

An inquiry committee has also been formed under the chairmanship of KM Pandey, Head of Department of the English department to check the facts in this regard. The committee has been asked to submit the report in three days.

Soon after a section of students had raised their objection against a poster that carried the photograph of Urdu poet Allama Muhammad Iqbal, the head of the department of Urdu of Banaras Hindu University (BHU) have now apologized and have removed the e-poster from social media platform.

The University in a tweet said that “A notice has been issued to the Head of the Department, Urdu Department, to clarify the facts regarding the controversy arising over the e-poster of a webinar organized by the Urdu Department on the occasion of Urdu Day.”

An inquiry committee has also been formed under the chairmanship of KM Pandey, Head of Department of the English department to check the facts in this regard. The committee has been asked to submit the report in three days. Bimlendra Kumar, HoD, Department of Pali and Buddhist Studies, Committee Member and Assistant Registrar, Faculty of Arts, will be the Member Secretary, it said.

On November 8, the BHU Dean of Arts faculty in a tweet said, “Urdu Department, Faculty of Arts, #BHU, is organizing a webinar as per the details given in the poster. Sincerest apologies for the inadvertent mistake in the earlier poster that went viral on social media.”

The protesting students also pointed out that the poster did not had a picture of BHU founder Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya. Subsequently, the photo of Iqbal has been removed and replaced with Malaviya in the revised poster that was tweeted on November 8. 

Head of Department of Urdu department Aftab Ahmad told The Indian Express, “We teach Iqbal as a poet and writer, who wrote ‘Saare Jahaan se achha Hindustan hamara’. His writing is taught in Hindi in universities…. One does not become British if one reads William Shakespeare…. Iqbal had called Lord Ram ‘Imam-e-Hind’.”
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