Chennai private varsity VC joins AAP

Educationist J.A.K. Tareen, the vice chancellor of a private univeristy in Chennai and a Padma Shri receipient, announced here Friday that he would join the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) to strengthen it with inputs on a comprehensive educational policy.

Tareen with 45 years of experience in the field of education is the vice chancellor of Chennai's B.S. Abdur Rahman University.

"I have been frustrated with the policy decisions the UPA (United Progressive Alliance) government has been taking for so many years. They were taken without any participatory mechanism," he told IANS.

"But I see AAP ushering a new wave of decision making. They have been actively involving people so it is a good start to a new change and I want to contribute to it," Tareen added.

The educationist, who was also a member of University Grants Commission (UGC), and the CEO of South Asia Foundation, has expressed a wish to contest Lok Sabha polls this April-May.

Earlier in the week, Infosys board member V. Balakrishnan, head of Royal Bank of Scotland Meera Sanyal and Adarsh Shastri, grandson of former Indian prime minister Lal Shastri, who who was working as sales head at Apple India, quit their jobs and joined AAP, as have actor Ranvir Shorey, Dalit activist Lalit Babbar and SEZ campaigner Manav Kamble.

--Indo-Asian News Service

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