Kolkata: The first online meeting of the committee investigating the hijab dispute at Jadavpur University was cancelled after the chancellor's nominee to the EC, Kazi Masum Akhatar, also a member of the panel, expressed "lack of confidence" in the panel's chairperson, Syed Tanveer Nasreen, and refused to attend the discussion.
Nasreen, a history professor at Burdwan University, said allegations were being levelled to "delay and disrupt" the probe. "It is a matter of concern how an independent fact-finding committee's chairperson was also a part of the state's minorities commission that visited the university on Dec 30. Will this committee's probe be transparent and fair after this?" Akhtar wrote to the VC.
The minorities commission has suggested that the professor involved in the hijab row, should stay off campus until the probe was over.
Nasreen said, "I am not part of the minorities commission. I went there as a member of civil society. I felt if I attended that meeting, my perspective would be clear." Nasreen has reportedly emailed the JU VC, asking him to schedule the meeting.
JU expanded the three-member panel to five, co-opting a professor from JU and another from RBU. A JU official said, "This has created a strange problem. The panel should be allowed to work."