PRAYAGRAJ: Days after being forced to cancel a poetic symposium on the campus on August 13, the cultural committee of Allahabad University has now been dissolved on the orders of VC Prof Sangita Srivastava through a notification issued by AU registrar Prof NK Shukla.
The symposium had attracted controversy when it came to light that some poets who had been part of the anti-CAA protests at Shaheenbagh in New Delhi had also been invited to the symposium.
An all-India Mushaira and Kavi Sammelan was supposed to be organised on AU campus on August 13 under the joint aegis of Uttar Pradesh Urdu Academy, central cultural committee of AU and department of Urdu, AU. Prof Shabnam Hamid, head of the department, and Prof Santosh Bhadauria, chairman of the central cultural committee were actively involved in the preparations of the event.
However, the mushaira was cancelled at the last moment, despite the fact that almost all the invited poets had arrived and so had the guests.
Divisional commissioner Sanjay Goyal, who had earlier given his approval to come as the chief guest, and AU vice chancellor, who was to preside over the function, refused to come. Although the university authorities were tight-lipped about the reason behind the last moment withdrawal of the chief guest and the VC from the event, sources informed that it was because names of some Urdu poets were among the invitees who had raised their voice against CAA and Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Shaheen Bagh protest in Delhi last year. When this issue went viral on social media, the two had refused to attend the event and the same was cancelled.
Now, AU’s central cultural committee, which was constituted on December last year, has been dissolved with immediate effect.
On being asked as to why the committee has been dissolved within eight months of its existence, AU public relation officer (PRO) Jaya Kapoor said, “The AU administration had decided that there is a need for a new cultural committee. Hence, the existing committee is being dissolved so that the new committee can take over”.
