Outside the imposing gate of the sprawling Mohammad Ali Jauhar University in Rampur, Uttar Pradesh, Mohd. Waseem, a carpenter, has forfeited a day’s wages to support students protesting against a district administration notice.
The sit-in protest began on July 18 after the Rampur Development Authority (RDA) issued an order to demolish 38 of the 40 buildings on the campus, alleging that they had been built without approved construction plans.
The move marks a major escalation after years of State scrutiny over alleged illegal land acquisition and lease violations.
Holding a placard that places “ilm” (learning) above all else, the school dropout says he shares an emotional connection with the institution because he contributed to its woodwork. “I am here to appeal for the university to be saved. Otherwise, I fear the youngsters of the region will have to work as labourers like me.”
Mohd Waseem, a carpenter holding a placard that places ilm (learning)
| Photo Credit:
Anuj Kumar
Braving the heat and humidity, around 100 university students are huddled under a plastic tent a few metres away, raising slogans against the district administration, holding portraits of B.R. Ambedkar in their laps and copies of the Constitution in their hands. “No one is leading this protest. It is a question of our career and safety. Our parents believe in this university,” says Iqra, a law student at the university, who rushed from her home in Pithoragarh, Uttarakhand, when the news broke. “It seems the administration has succumbed to the interests of its political masters, but our protest is anything but political,” she says.
While the university administration strongly disputes the legality of the demolition order and has approached the Moradabad Divisional Commissioner for redress, anxious students find themselves caught in the crossfire between administrative enforcement and what they describe as “political targeting”. “It seems the government wants to tell us that Azam Khan committed a crime by building a temple of education for us and that we have sinned by taking admission to it,” says Saqib Sayeed, a postgraduate law student and a practising lawyer whose voice has turned hoarse from constant sloganeering.
Set in stone
Established in 2006 through an Act of the State Legislature by the Maulana Mohammad Ali Jauhar Trust under the leadership of Samajwadi Party (SP) founding member Azam Khan, the university’s 250-acre campus provides higher education in diverse disciplines, including engineering, pharmacy, law and agriculture, to over 2,400 students.
It is recognised by the University Grants Commission (UGC) and was granted minority status in 2014 after then Governor Aziz Qureshi assented to the Bill, seven years after the State Assembly passed it.
University’s central Mumtaz library, modelled on the Capitol Building.
| Photo Credit:
Anuj Kumar
At present, Khan and his son, Abdullah Azam Khan, are serving prison sentences following multiple convictions, including in a forgery case involving duplicate Permanent Account Number (PAN) cards.
The Rampur district court also upheld an additional two-year prison sentence against Khan for violating the Model Code of Conduct during the 2019 Lok Sabha election campaign. During the campaign, he made derogatory “shoe-cleaning” remarks about the then District Magistrate Aunjaneya Kumar Singh, who now serves as the Moradabad Divisional Commissioner. The ball is now in his court.
In January, Khan resigned as the chairperson of the trust, passing the baton to his sister, Nikhat Aflaq, and his eldest son, Adeeb Azam. He continues to serve as the university’s Chancellor. People in his inner circle say the move was intended to safeguard the university’s interests from what they describe as “political vendetta” against him.
Invoking Section 27(1) of the Uttar Pradesh Urban Planning and Development Act, 1973, in his order, District Magistrate Ajay Kumar Dwivedi, who is also the Vice-Chairman of the RDA, noted that only the university’s medical college building and one academic block had valid construction approvals obtained from the district panchayat.
The administration maintained that because the management had previously secured approvals for those two buildings, it was fully aware of the legal requirements governing the remaining 38 structures.
Sources say the move stemmed from the 2023 Income Tax raid, which pointed to discrepancies in valuation and alleged underreporting of the cost of the structures, including two mosques.
The university’s principal argument is that most of the campus was constructed before 2016. At that time, the area where the university is located did not fall under the RDA watch. It contends that the university came under the authority’s jurisdiction only in 2024. Therefore, it argues, the RDA’s regulations cannot be applied retrospectively. Advocate Kashif Sarvat, a member of the university’s legal team, says they presented no-objection certificates issued by the then Gram Panchayat for the buildings, which, like those of any educational institution, were constructed over time. However, he says, the District Magistrate decided to proceed with the demolition order.
False impression
The students allege that the district administration is trying to hollow out the university by creating panic among them. “A day after the notice, a camp was organised just outside the gate where district officials, along with agents and faculty members from a government college and an upcoming private university in Moradabad, tried to terrorise students about their future by creating a false narrative that the university was going to be demolished soon,” says Sayeed, wondering how the buildings could be illegal if the UGC recognised the university’s degrees. “Even if they are, a penalty can be imposed.”
Azra Fatima, who enrolled in the Bachelor of Education programme after completing a B.Sc. in Zoology, says she has devoted five years to the university because she has faith in its faculty and academic environment. “We have empathy for the students sitting at Jantar Mantar because their struggle is also about education, but right now our focus is on saving our campus.”
It was only after Vice-Chancellor Prof. Zaheeruddin sent a notice to the District Magistrate, invoking an Allahabad High Court order of 2019, that the camp was removed two days later. “I can’t comment on the details because the matter is sub judice, but we have a strong legal basis. An appeal has been filed before the Commissioner’s court. Further, we can invoke Article 226 before the High Court and Article 32 before the Supreme Court,” says Prof. Zaheeruddin, adding that the law itself recognises that certain construction-related violations may be addressed through regularisation, compounding or post facto approval.
“Why can’t the powers that be respect a centre of education that serves students from all communities in Rampur?” the Vice-Chancellor says. A senior professor of law at Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) before joining the university after his retirement, he claims: “Every year, the administration tries to create the impression that the university is on the verge of closure to drive students away, perhaps creating a situation where it is reduced to a structure that can be bulldozed under some regulation. If push comes to shove, we will teach students on the road.”
A centre of education and Islamic learning, Rampur is remembered as the birthplace of Mohammed Ali Jauhar, the freedom fighter and journalist who co-founded the Khilafat Movement and Jamia Millia Islamia in Delhi. He served as president of the Indian National Congress in 1923. Jauhar also held the rare distinction of serving as president of the All-India Muslim League. After the Non-Cooperation Movement and the publication of the Nehru Report, he distanced himself from the Congress. Though Jauhar died in 1931, long before the demand for a separate Muslim State crystallised, his association with the League gives right-wing elements fodder to question Khan’s decision to name the university after Rampur’s most celebrated son.
Contrasting image
Rampur, the Lok Sabha constituency once represented by India’s first Education Minister Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, was home to institutions such as the Raza Library and Madarsa Aliya, which attracted researchers from across the world. Over the years, the city has lost much of its educational and cultural sheen due to a combination of geopolitical shifts, economic stagnation and political polarisation. Today, the nearest government university is in Bareilly, about 70 km away.
Khan’s supporters say he sought to restore the city’s lost glory by building a university on the lines of Sir Syed Ahmad Khan’s vision for AMU, catering primarily to the underprivileged. Akseer Ahmad, a student with a disability who graduated from AMU, says he shifted to Jauhar University because it offers greater fee concessions to Persons with Disabilities (PwD) than other institutions.
Usman Ali, an engineering student, says he availed himself of the quota for wards of single mothers. Female students speak of the safe and affordable bus and rickshaw services provided by the university. “In the city of knives, Azam Khan has placed a pen in the hands of the poor, but it seems the government wants to snatch it away,” says Angel Bharti, a Class 12 student who hopes to pursue undergraduate studies at the university.
Khan’s detractors, however, point to the criminal investigation and court case involving the alleged theft of thousands of rare books, ancient manuscripts and antique furniture from the 250-year-old Madarsa Aliya, which investigators claim were recovered from the university’s central Mumtaz Library, modelled on the U.S. Capitol Building. The protest has once again brought into focus the university’s grand buildings, inspired by architectural landmarks from around the world.
The Rabindranath Tagore Auditorium incorporates elements of classical Greek architecture, while the administrative block is reminiscent of Hyderabad’s Falaknuma Palace.
The seven-storey water tank has an elevator leading to a serene artificial lake beside the Kosi riverbed. A replica of the Ashoka Pillar stands in the central courtyard facing the mosque, creating a striking visual axis. Positioned prominently beside this axis is a decommissioned Soviet-era T-55 battle tank.
From allegations of using enemy property to charges of forcibly acquiring farmers’ land and non-payment of labour cess, the university has for years faced administrative and legal action arising from multiple State government investigations. However, the latest demolition notice has softened the stance of even some of Khan’s fiercest critics. The common refrain is that even if government funds were misused to build a private university, the money was ultimately public. “Demolition is no solution,” says Mohd. Danish, an advocate, pointing out that even the administration converted the university’s medical college into a COVID-19 facility during the pandemic.
Fasahat Ali Khan Shanu, once a close associate of Khan and now a Muslim face of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), says just as no one can erase Madan Mohan Malaviya’s contribution to Banaras Hindu University, no one can take away Khan’s role in establishing the university. However, he adds, “It is time the government takes it over.”
He has submitted a memorandum to the Commissioner to this effect.
However, as it is a minority institution, stakeholders acknowledge that taking it over would require a substantial legislative exercise.
Political fallout
As delegations from Opposition parties and social organisations flock to the campus in support of the students, the issue is increasingly taking on a political colour a year ahead of the Assembly election, generating sympathy for Khan. Asim Raja, Khan’s chief election agent and media in-charge, who oversees organisational work in his absence, sees the demolition notice as yet another attempt by the State government to “divert attention” from its failures and polarise the electorate.
He admits that the protest has helped paper over the cracks within SP. The party’s Rampur MP, Mohibullah Nadvi, whose candidature was pushed through by party president Akhilesh Yadav despite Khan’s reservations, has also come out in support of the university.
Awdhesh Sharma, a grassroots BJP worker, says the city stands with the students and their future, but there is no love lost for Khan.
“We all know the kind of influence and pressure he used to build his dream project and how it has remained mired in controversies. The issue might strengthen the SP’s vote bank, but it is not going to pay dividends beyond Rampur.”
Political observers and senior bureaucrats believe that the ruling party stands to gain more from the developments. There is a perception that even if Khan has lost some of his political heft, a large section of Muslim youth, not just in Rampur but across Uttar Pradesh, still sees him as a defender of minority identity and a counterweight to the Hindutva onslaught.
“Azam Khan’s name helps the BJP polarise elections in at least 150 constituencies across Uttar Pradesh. It appears that keeping his spectre alive in a Muslim-majority constituency is not a bad bargain. His resurgence in the run-up to State polls is more of a headache for Akhilesh Yadav, as the seasoned politician is known to bargain hard with the party president for seats,” says a senior bureaucrat, requesting anonymity.
When he was out on bail in 2025, a party insider says, his proximity to Azad Samaj Party leader Chandrashekhar Azad Ravan created a major political buzz, sending the SP leadership into a tizzy. There are whispers at the protest site about whether Akhilesh, who has largely maintained a strategic distance from what are seen as “Muslim issues”, will raise concerns over the proposed demolition of Khan’s pride and joy with the same vigour that he displayed over the paper leak issue. For now, to quell speculation, a high-level party delegation led by Mata Prasad Pandey, Leader of the Opposition in the State Assembly, has met the District Magistrate.
Personal battle?
Those tracking Khan’s legal trajectory under the current administration will recognise that Commissioner Singh has been the central administrative figure behind the legal and regulatory action against Khan’s political and institutional empire.
The Sikkim-cadre IAS officer joined the Uttar Pradesh cadre on inter-cadre deputation in 2015, when the SP government was in power in the State. Owing to successive extensions granted by the Central government at the request of the Uttar Pradesh government, his deputation has stretched into an unprecedented 11-year tenure in his home State. With his current tenure officially ending on August 14, a section of people in Rampur links the recent developments to his future. Singh rejects the suggestion, saying the demolition order reflected the District Magistrate’s assessment. “He felt compounding was not possible because the entire layout had not been approved. I know that health and education are of paramount importance. Within the framework of the law, we need to find a way out,” says Singh.
anuj.kumar@thehindu.co.in
Edited by Sunalini Mathew and Amarjot Kaur
