AMU VC clarifies remark, says he was misquoted

Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) vice chancellor Lieutenant General (retired) Zameer Uddin Shah on Tuesday said he had be misquoted on his statement of Monday, and added that the university stringently works to provide equal rights and opportunities to women.

"The report has only been given in order to sensationalise the news. I had gone to the Abdullah Girls College yesterday where the students demanded that they be given permission to use the Maulana Azad Library. My response was that there is no space in the library, and if I allow you students to go, there will be more of a crowd in the library. I clarified that the library cannot take the load of any more students," Lieutenant General (retd.) Shah told the media.

"We are not sexist; we are working towards the empowerment of women. AMU is secular and women get equal opportunities in our university," he added.

Lieutenant General (retd.) Shah further said that women already had access to the library, adding that he had made no statements about male students bothering them.

"Girls are already going to the library, and I have never said that male students will bother them. Our boys know their manners and know how to behave with women. We certainly do not want to segregate our girls; in fact we want to give them equal opportunities," he said.

"I had merely said that the library cannot accommodate any more students. Unless we expand the library, I am afraid that we cannot grant more students access to it. Moreover, the library is open 18 hours a day," he added.

Noting that till the Maulana Azad library is expanded, it cannot accommodate any more students, Lieutenant General (retd.) Shah told the media that all the undergraduate girls have access to the books online.

"I have clarified that all the books in the library are also available to the students online. Moreover, we have given a grant of Rs 11 lakh to the college so that their library improves," he said.

"Another problem is that the Abdullah College is also around three kilometers away from the library. Many students have difficulties traversing that stretch," he added.

Earlier, Lieutenant General (retd.) Shah had been quoted as saying that the girls had been denied access to the Maulana Azad library because "boys will flood the library if girls are allowed and there isn't enough space."

According to reports, the Centre has taken note of this statement, with Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Zubin Irani seeking a report from Lieutenant General (retd.) Shah on the same.