The University of Science and Technology (USTM) in Meghalaya has become the only private university in the Northeast region to be included in the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) 2024, which the Union Ministry of Education released earlier this week.
The honour assumes significance from the university run by a Muslim foundation because the university has been under attack from Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, who accused it of ‘flood jihad’ for allegedly being responsible for floods in Guwahati.
Sarma also targeted the university, saying that its gates are like Mecca – the holiest site of Islam in Saudi Arabia– and that his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government would move the National Green Tribunal (NGT) against the university.
USTM, a private university established in 2008, is promoted by the Education Research and Development Foundation, founded by Mahbubul Hoque, also the Chancellor of the University.
On August 13, a day after the NIRF ranking was released, the university held a short celebration in its auditorium. Chancellor Mahbubul Hoque, addressing the gathering, commented on the timing of the ‘good news.’
“Sometimes when your eyes burn, doesn’t it feel good when water is put on it?” Hoque was quoted as saying in a report by Indian Express.
On August 12, Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan announced the 9th edition of NIRF Rankings 2024. The annual rankings assess and rank higher education institutions in India based on various criteria. The Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru has topped university rankings, followed by Jawaharlal Nehru University and Jamia Millia Islamia in New Delhi.
“I am away from politics. I am aware that I look like a religious man, but I am very much away from all religious activities. I only see the students’ faces…. I never thought that we would be facing such negativity at any point of our journey,” Hoque, a Muslim of Bengali-origin from Assam’s Karimganj district in the Barak Valley, said, according to the Indian Express report. Hoque sports a beard and wears a skull cap.
Sarma continued his tirade against the university on August 12, the day the rankings were released. He said the university has depictions of Mecca at its gates and nothing to symbolise Hindu or Christian religions.
The new parallel came days after Sarma accused the university of waging what he called the ‘flood jihad‘, by demolishing hills on its campus to build new structures which, according to him, is one of the reasons for water logging in Guwahati, the state capital.
The Assam CM also said that Congress leader late Tarun Gogoi, who was the chief minister of Assam between 2001 and 2016, had also identified the water from Jorabat area along the Assam-Meghalaya border for the ‘artificial flood’ in Guwahati.
The varsity is located in the 9th Mile area in Ri-Bhoi district of Meghalaya, near Assam’s Jorabat, the entry point to Guwahati.
Guwahati witnessed flash flooding after a few hours of rainfall on August 5. Two days later, Gauhati High Court hauled up the Sarma-led government over waterlogging in the city.