HRD ministry appoints RSS's Inder Mohan Kapahy as a UGC member

NEW DELHI: The human resource development ministry has appointed as a member of the University Grants Commission ( UGC) Professor Inder Mohan Kapahy, a long-time member of RSS and founding member of the National Democratic Teachers’ Front that led a successful fight against Delhi University’s four-year undergraduate programme last year after the Narendra Modi-led NDA government came to power.

Kapahy had met HRD minister Smriti Irani several times over the issue and also demanded an inquiry against Delhi University vice-chancellor Dinesh Singh for alleged financial irregularities. Irani later wrote to President Pranab Mukherjee for initiating action against Singh.

The ministry appointed Kapahy as a UGC member on January 27, as per an official notification accessed by ET. “In exercise of the powers conferred by the University Grants Commission Act, 1956, the central government hereby appoints Inder Mohan Kapahy, Professor, School of Applied Sciences, Maharaja Agrasen University, Himachal Pradesh, as a member of the University Grants Commission with immediate effect for a term of three years or till further orders, whichever is earlier,” the notification says.

Kapahy has been associated for long with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, ruling BJP’s ideological mentor, and has been writing articles for the RSS mouthpiece, Organiser. “I feel this appointment is recognition of the contribution a grass-roots teacher like me can make in decision-making at the apex education body, UGC,” Kapahy told ET.

UGC has 10 members, with Professor Ved Prakash as the chairperson. Asked if his political leanings as a RSS activist could have played a role in the appointment, Kapahy said, “Political ideology does not matter in posts like a UGC member. RSS has got nothing to do with this. It is only that some people in the RSS are known to me.” In his role as the NDTF founding member, Kapahy had last year pointed to allegedly unapproved expenditure of over Rs 170 crore for buying more than 50,000 laptops in Delhi University from OBC funds.