Bihar University Professor’s Social Media Post Prompts Protests Over Comments on Muslim National Identity

A professor at a Bihar university is being investigated by the police for his demand of a “separate homeland for Muslims” through his social media posts. The social media post by Khursheed Alam triggered protests by the students and ultimately led to his resignation from his post.

Khursheed Alam was an assistant professor at Jai Prakash University.

He wrote two anti-India protests – one post read “United Pakistan and Bangladesh #Zindabad” and the other “…the Indian Muslims want a separate homeland adjoining Pakistan and Bangladesh” – on social media a couple of days back.

The posts triggered a huge protest from students and prompted the university administration to serve show-cause notice for indulging in “anti-national activities”. Later, the professor resigned from his post.
“Posting such matters on social media is totally wrong. It seems he is not in a good state of mind. Anyway, we have written to the SP, DM and the Raj Bhawan for suitable actions against him,” said University registrar Ranjit Kumar, according to Times of India.

Siwan SP Shailesh Kumar Sinha said the professor only “expressed his opinion” through his posts and that the police has began investigation after filing a complaint over the matter.

Alam, meanwhile, said his opinion was based on the “freedom of expression” granted to the citizens under the Indian Constitution. “Our Constitution declares India as a ‘secular’ state but the BJP in its manifesto has announced to make India a “Hindu rashtra’. Presently, the state (country) is not ‘neutral’ towards all religions. Courts’ judgments are also ‘biased’ as most of them are against the Muslim minority,” he told TOI.

Alam was head of the department of political science at Narayan College, Siwan which falls under the JP University.