Women students of Jamia Milia University had earlier written an open letter to the university administration expressing their unwillingness to welcome Prakash Javadekar, who, according to them, belongs to a political ideology that does not respect women.
Even as the Human Resource Development Minister Prakash Javadekar chose Jamia Milia Islamia University as the first Central university that he visited after assuming the charge, he was welcomed there amidst discontent, among girl students.
Though the minister who visited the institute on Wednesday to inaugurate a newly-built girl's hostel in the university tried to strike a chord with the students by talking about women empowerment and praising the efforts of girl students, it did not seem to work with many.
"In older days, it was very difficult for women to study, when the university was founded in the year 1920, it would have been unimaginable for women to study, but today we are creating a safe and secure environment for women from all over the country to come and study. When you educate a woman, you educate an entire family. All this is women empowerment," Javadekar said while addressing students in the university campus.
One of the students who attended the event said on condition of anonymity: "We were really disappointed about what he said about women empowerment. The way he put out his ideas about women empowerment, it felt like 10 years ago."
Women students of Jamia had earlier written an open letter to the administration expressing their unwillingness to welcome the minister, who, according to them, belongs to a political ideology that does not respect women. The students had also planned a protest in the university, to express their discontent about the minister's visit. They were however issued strict instructions by the administration to let the event go peacefully.
One of the students who wrote the open letter said: "In places like Jamia you are constantly under scrutiny and hence we could not say anything in public. The open letter that we wrote was also a way of expressing our side of the issue."
Javadekar also spoke about providing more opportunities to students from Kashmir by giving them more scholarships. A large part of his speech was about the Prime Minister's education schemes. The former HRD Minister Smriti Irani has also faced the ire of students during one of her visits to university.
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