Vastanvi stays as head of Deoband seminary

LUCKNOW: Maulana Ghulam Mohammed Vastanvi will stay on as the head of the Darul Uloom seminary in Deoband, Uttar Pradesh, at the end of a bitter backroom battle for control of the country’s most influential Islamic school.

Sixty-one-year-old Vastanvi, who was elected to lead the 145-year-old institution in January, had resigned earlier this month following a controversy over his reported comments saying all communities were prospering in Gujarat. This was interpreted as a clean chit to Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi who is accused by adversaries of presiding over the communal riots of 2002.

The Majlis-e-Shoora, the supreme council of the institution, rejected his resignation on Wednesday, and appointed a three-member committee to probe allegations against him. The council also appointed Maulana Mufti Abul Qasim Naomani Benarasi as a ‘caretaker VC’ for 90 days when the committee will probe the allegations against him and the subsequent protests and pandemonium created at the institution by warring factions.

“I’m still the Vice-Chancellor of Darul Uloom,” Vastanvi told waiting reporters after the meeting of the 18-member governing council. Only 14 members attended the meeting. “The decision on accepting Vastanvi’s offer will depend on the report,” Maulana Abdul Alim Faruqee, a member of the governing council, said.

“As of now, Mufti Abul Qasim Naomani Benarasi has been appointed acting Vice-Chancellor of the Darul Uloom and will have full powers. In case Shura accepts Vastani’s offer of resignation later on, then Noamani will take over as the head of the institution,” Faruqee said.

Vastanvi’s election had raised hopes that he will open up the seminary to modern influences. He runs a chain of modern institutions in Maharashtra.