Decision to rename Dyal Singh College put on hold: Govt

New Delhi, December 19

Human Resource Development Minister Prakash Javadekar said on Tuesday that decision to change the name of an evening college had been put on hold.

Answering a question posed by Shiromani Akali Dal Parliamentarian Naresh Gujral in Rajya Sabha on Tuesday, Javadekar said that the decision to change the name of the evening college of Dyal Singh College to Vande Mataram Mahavidyalaya was not taken by the central government.

“(This) is not the government’s decision and the government does not like it. That’s why we have asked that the decision be withheld forthwith and an immediate meeting be convened … we don’t like it and no such a thing will happen,” the minister said, adding that the Delhi University, with which the college is affiliated, has also been informed. “Creating unnecessary controversies by playing with emotions is wrong,” he said.

Gujral — whose SAD is an ally of Javadekar’s Bharatiya Janata Party in the Centre — called the decision taken by the managing committee of the Dyal Singh College unfortunate, and said it was an attempt to create communal hatred in the country. He added that the words “Vande Mataram” evoked patriotic fervour in every Indian and that the government “should set up a university” of that name.

“But to change the name of a minority institution is a direct assault on the feelings of Sikhs…I feel this is something to be condemned,” the SAD leader said, asking for the managing committee to be replaced immediately.

Dyal Singh Majithia was a philanthropist and a patron of educational institutions, to which he donated large sums of money.