RSS gets its first journalism university

Makhanlal Chaturvedi National University is soon going to teach its students the art and science of taking care of cows. A decision to this effect has been taken by Brij Kishore Kuthiala, Vice Chancellor of the university. The logic for taking such an innovative decision is that gaushalas were also maintained by Nalanda and Takshshila universities which existed in ancient India and which were regarded as dynamic seats of learning. His other argument is that Ujjain, where lord Krishna was apparently educated, also taught the art of caring for cows.

Makhanlal Chaturvedi National University of Journalism & Communication, established by MP Government, has earmarked one-tenth of the area in its 50-acre new campus at Bhopal for establishing a cowshed. The gaushala, says its vice chancellor Brij Kishore Kuthiala, will provide scarce, pure and fresh milk and curd to faculty and students. The university will also benefit from cheap fuel by producing biogas from cow dung and manure to grow vegetables on the campus.

Naturally, he was lauded by the state BJP for the wonderful idea. “It is a novel idea and it is for the first time an education institute is following our traditions,” said state BJP President Nandkumar Singh Chouhan. Many students of his university flooded social media with messages to support their Vice Chancellor.

Besides the gaushala, the brilliant Vice-Chancellor has many other original ideas to his credit. For instance he tells his students that Narada was the first journalist who mastered the art of news gathering. He has included Narada in the university syllabus so that future journalists can learn 'a, b, c' of investigative journalism from him. To ensure that varsity students continue to seek inspiration, a statue of Narada has been installed in the varsity campus. Students are also taught that Narada was the adi patrakar. Similarly, students are reminded that Sanjaya was the first T.V. reporter or embedded war correspondent, if you like, who covered ‘Mahabharat’ and gave live minute to minute report of Mahabharat, said to be the greatest war ever fought on earth.

Kuthiala never misses any opportunity to invite ‘Sadhu Sants’ to the university. He requests them to give sermons about the role of journalism in spreading the ideals of our great Hindu culture. Some time back a Shankaracharya was invited to the University. Students and teachers not only listened to his ‘pravachan’ (lecture) but were also asked to perform his ‘paduka poojan.’

The Vice-Chancellor makes every attempt to prove that his university is primarily a Hindu university. All his steps have only one objective and that is to please his RSS bosses. His efforts bore fruit when he got another term mainly because of the blessings of the RSS.

A few days back he took another step to strengthen the University as a “pure” RSS institute. According to a report published in local newspapers, the list of holidays included in the varsity calendar make no mention of holidays for festivals like Eid, Christmas and Nanak Jayanti. According to the calendar, the University will remain closed for seven days during Diwali and Holy festivals.

His capacity to win over important persons connected with the University is well known. Sometime back Markandey Katju, in his capacity of Press Council Chairmen, was a special invitee to the varsity executive. In the very first meeting which he attended he lashed out at the vice-chancellor for his alleged acts of irregularities. When he did not receive any satisfactory explanation he staged a walkout. But after a gap of time he was won over by Kuthiala and to everybody's shock Katju was the first to propose Kuthiala’s name for another term of vice-chancellorship. Similarly, a memorandum was submitted by a group of Bhopal journalists to Mr Katju. He in turn promised stern action against the VC but nothing happened subsequently.