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| Book hints at the course of events if Subramanian Swamy had taken over as JNU VC - Wiki image |
Before JNU, BJP leader Subramanian Swamy, was involved in another controversy with IIT-Delhi and it took no less than a Rajat Gupta to challenge him successfully.
The events detailed by Sandipan Deb's Book Fallen Angel (Rupa, 2013), however, occurred in 1971 during Rajat Gupta's final year in the mechanical engineering department.
Rajat Gupta was a star student, who took part in 17 plays during his stay, headed students union and was universally popular. Among the toppers of the batch, he was also a rare IITian, who had a girl friend, whom he went on to marry.
In his final year, Subramanian Swamy joined IIT Delhi to teach economics.
The book says Swamy started radicalising the campus with his Hindutva ideology as soon he stepped in, and managed to get support of a section of students as well as class four employees.
An RSS shaka came up on IIT-Delhi campus and Swamy-affiliated students started talking about banning jeans and promoting an Indian dress code.
A group of Hindutva supporters even warned students from playing rock and roll in public, and asked them to switch over to Indian classical music.
More dangerously, the book says, Swamy started mobilising students and staff against the IIT-Delhi director Dr Dogra - and this effectively divided the campus.
This is when Rajat Gupta decided to step in to oppose what Swamy was doing. He rallied his friends to keep politics out of the institution and started a counter-campaign, which he personally led.
His contemporaries remember Rajat Gupta courageously confronting militant students and saying: "If you burn down the buildings we will call fire engines and build another."
Dr Dogra was emboldened by the support he was getting and banned RSS shaka from the campus, which calmed down after that.
When Rajat Gupta applied for Harvard, he was given a recommendation letter, by a grateful Dr Dogra.
"Here is a student, who saved our campus," the letter said.
While a repeat of Delhi IIT's experience would have been alarming for JNU, it never ran the risk of Swamy taking over as its VC. Media reports say at 76, Swamy is beyond the 65 years, which is the age limit for the post.