Srinagar: The administration at University of Kashmir has suspended a senior professor and ex-President of the varsity’s teachers association for his comments on a recent cleanliness event held at the institution. The administration says that the comments amount to “misconduct and violation of service conduct rules”.
In an order issued Monday by Assistant Registrar Administration at KU, the varsity administration suspended with immediate effect Prof Muheet Ahmad Butt, Scientist at Department of Computer Sciences and ex-President Kashmir University Teachers Association (KUTA), pending enquiry “into his misconduct and violation of Service Rules”.
Butt, who is on deputation in the Higher Education Department as a consultant, is currently not in Kashmir.
The order said that a “charge sheet” will follow in the matter.
The senior professor’s suspension comes three days after his comments in a private Whatsapp group of KU faculty members, on the ‘Swachhta Pledge’ taken by the KU administration on Gandhi Jayanti on October 2. The KU administration had pledged to devote 100 hours a year to cleanliness.
Butt, who shared pictures of the event wherein the Vice Chancellor Prof Talat Ahmad distributed hand sanitisers and face masks and posed with officials and volunteers, wrote, “I feel we may get rid of dogs at KU. These have become wild animals.”
A screenshot of the group conversation, seen by Kashmir Reader, shows that the comment is a second one, with the first deleted by Butt. It could not be established what he had written in the first comment.
Sources told Kashmir Reader that some faculty member in the Whatsapp group forwarded Butt’s comments to the administration, suggesting that by “dogs” and “wild animals” in his comments, Butt meant the officials in the administration.
The comments were also forwarded to the office of the Lieutenant Governor, Manoj Sinha, sources added.
But a senior professor at KU said that Butt had “indeed referred to canines in his ‘dogs’ comment”, referring to dogs that had become a menace in the campus.
The professor said that the KU administration had suspended Butt “merely to suppress the voice of a whistleblower”.
Another senior professor at KU said that Butt’s comments on the cleanliness drive had “only provided a trigger for punishing his past criticism of the administration”.
Registrar KU, Prof Nisar Ahmad Mir, told Kashmir Reader that after the comments came to the fore, a high-level committee comprising the Vice Chancellor,Dean Academic Affairs,Dean Research,Dean College Development Council,Chief Proctor and Registrar was set up to examine them. Mir said that the professor’s suspension came only after the committee’s recommendations.
Prof Mir said that Butt will have to explain his position when the charges are presented to him.
President KUTA, Prof Manzoor A Chachoo, said he hoped that the administration will take a lenient view of the matter. He said the teachers association was trying to pacify the situation.

Irshad Khan