Centre won’t allow renaming of Dyal Singh college, says Prakash Javadekar

The original name cannot be changed, the minister said after reports that the management had quietly renamed the college and banners of ‘Vande Mataram Dyal Singh College’ had been put up.

The government will not allow Dyal Singh College (Evening) to be renamed Dyal Singh Vande Matram College and will take action against its management committee for doing so without consent, Union human resource minister Prakash Javadekar said on Wednesday.

File photo of Union human resource minister Prakash Javadekar. (PTI photo)

The original name cannot be changed, the minister said after reports that the management had quietly renamed the college and banners of ‘Vande Mataram Dyal Singh College’ had been put up.

Union food minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal took up the issue with Prime Minister Narendra Modi after the cabinet meeting on Wednesday.

She said she had briefed the prime minister and “requested” that the college’s governing body chairman Amitabh Sinha be sacked and action taken against Delhi University vice-chancellor Yogesh Tyagi for hurting the sentiments of the Sikh community.

“Have requested PM @narendramodi ji to sack Dayal Singh College mgmt head Amitabh Sinha for going against HRD min. assurance that name of Dayal Singh College won’t be changed.I briefed him that Sinha’s mischievous conduct had hurt Sikh sentiments & am hopeful of corrective action,” she tweeted.

Sinha did not respond to calls and text messages seeking his comment on the issue.

The ministry, Javadekar said, will take action against the college management committee for going ahead with the renaming despite his statement in Parliament that it cannot be done.

“We had earlier also asked them to reconsider the move. We will not allow the college to be renamed. If there are two Dyal Singh colleges, they can call them A and B or 1 and 2 to differentiate but the original name cannot be changed,” he said.

On November 17, 2017, the governing body of Dyal Singh College decided that Dyal Singh (Evening) College would be called ‘Vande Mataram Mahavidyalaya’ after it is converted to a morning college.

A controversy erupted with various sections opposing the move to rename the college. The HRD ministry then asked the college management to put the decision on hold.

“The decision to rename Delhi’s Dyal Singh Evening College as Vande Mataram Mahavidyalaya has been put on hold. The government was neither involved in the controversial decision, nor did it approve of it,” Javadekar had told Rajya Sabha in December.

The Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC) general secretary Manjinder Singh Sirsa on Tuesday said the Sikh community was shocked at the name change.

The evening college, founded in 1958, has long shared its campus in central Delhi’s Lodhi area with Dyal Singh College, which was founded the next year. Both institutes share the same governing body and college buildings but have separate teaching and administrative staff.

(This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.)