M Jagadesh Kumar: From controversial JNU vice-chancellor to chairman of University Grants Commission

M Jagadesh Kumar, the vice-chancellor of Jawaharlal Nehru University, has been appointed as chairman of the University Grants Commission (UGC). News agency PTI quoted a senior official from the ministry of education as saying, “Jagadesh Kumar has been appointed the new UGC chairman.” Kumar has been appointed as the chairman of the higher education regulator for a period of five years. The post of the UGC chairman fell vacant on 7 December after Professor DP Singh, who had taken charge in 2018, resigned upon turning 65. The post of the vice-chairman of the higher education regulator is also vacant. Here’s all you need to know about M Jagadesh Kumar. Born in Telangana, M Jagadesh Kumar, who confesses that he’s an expert in Karate and the gym, did his Masters and PhD in Electrical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, followed by post-doctoral research at University of Waterloo, Canada. In the years 1994 and 1995, he was a visiting faculty and an assistant professor in the Department of Electronics and Electrical Communication Engineering at Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur. In July 1997, he became an associate professor at the Department of Electrical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi. Kumar was also the Organising Chairman of the Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE) 2012 with the overall responsibility of organising the test across India in 860 centres spread over 170 cities/towns. He took over as JNU VC in January 2016. JNU VC tenure His tenure in JNU has been marked by constant campus unrest over issues ranging from the 2016 sedition controversy to the disappearance of Najeeb Ahmad, an MSc student. The Quint reports that barely a week after his appointment, Kumar found himself at loggerheads with the students over an event planned by the JNUSU to protest the hanging of Parliament attack convicts Afzal Guru and Maqbool Bhat. He withdrew permission for the event, but it went ahead anyway in a changed format. Following disruptions by the ABVP, former JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar and others were controversially booked and arrested for sedition on the grounds that anti-national slogans were raised at the event. Nine months later, a student — Najeeb Ahmad — went missing from the university campus after a brawl with members of RSS-affiliated ABVP. Najeeb has not been traced and there have been umpteen protests on and off campus on the issue. In 2017, Kumar passed an order prohibiting demonstration and protest in the vicinity of the “administration block”, which houses the offices of top varsity officials. The move triggered more protests by the students. In the same year, Kumar also invited self-styled guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar to deliver the Nehru Memorial Lecture. Additionally, in July 2018, during a ceremony to commemorate the Kargil victory, the vice chancellor spoke about installing a battle tank on campus to instil patriotic values in students. The Delhi high court, in November 2021, directed nine chairpersons appointed by the JNU VC to refrain from making any major decisions, especially involving convening selection committees or carrying out selections concerning the university’s centres or special centres. The HC had observed that the VC does not have any power to appoint chairpersons and that power is expressly held by the executive council. Kumar is currently holding the charge as acting VC of the varsity, after his tenure expired last year. With inputs from agencies Read all the Latest News , Trending News ,  Cricket News , Bollywood News , India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.