Amid backlash over PU renaming demand, PUCSC prez shelves proposal, issues apology
Chandigarh: Facing intense criticism from students, alumni, and political voices across Punjab, Panjab University Campus Students' Council (PUCSC) president Anurag Dalal has decided not to submit his proposal seeking to rename Panjab University as 'Panjab and Haryana University'.
Tired of too many ads? go ad free now
The proposal, which had drawn support from Rohtak MP
, has been stalled amid growing opposition.
Dalal, in a video uploaded on social media, issued an apology. "I am not into divisive things… if anyone felt bad, I apologise," he said. Though the proposal had not yet been submitted to the vice-chancellor, Dalal confirmed he would not be going ahead with it.
The move has triggered strong reactions from former Panjab University student leaders.
Aam Aadmi Party MP Malvinder Singh Kang, who served as PUCSC president in 2002 and 2003, said, "Panjab University is not just an academic institution — it is Punjab's cultural, emotional and historical legacy. Its name reflects our identity before and after Partition." Kang pointed out that Haryana's colleges had voluntarily disaffiliated from Panjab University in 1973, and said demands to rename it now were unconstitutional and baseless.
Congress leader and former PU student leader Brinder Dhillon also slammed the demand, calling it "an attack on the legacy of Punjabi language and heritage". He said the name Panjab University carries the weight of sacrifice and shared memory and should not be tampered with for political optics.
Rohtak MP Deepender Hooda had earlier endorsed the renaming idea, saying it would acknowledge Haryana's contribution and that he would raise the matter in Parliament.
Tired of too many ads? go ad free now
Several leaders from Punjab, cutting across party lines, rejected the statement. AAP and BJP both termed it an insult to Punjab's heritage. Despite the growing backlash, Hooda has not issued any clarification. Repeated attempts to reach him for comment went unanswered.
The backlash extended into student politics. PUCSC vice president Archit Garg publicly opposed the proposal, calling it "unnecessary and disconnected from student needs". Dalal's former election ally Sikander Boora also criticised the move. Several members of Dalal's own party, Student Front, voiced dissent, with some describing the proposal as "a distraction from real student issues".
AAP spokesperson Neel Garg said some leaders were resorting to stunts instead of addressing real issues, while BJP Punjab spokesperson Pritpal Singh Baliawal called the renaming proposal "an affront to Punjab's identity".
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Hindustan Times
18 hours ago
- Hindustan Times
Why India must aim to win information wars
Disinformation dominated the recent India–Pakistan conflict. India won the physical fight; we have not yet won the information war. Until it does, New Delhi will struggle to de-hyphenate India and Pakistan globally — an essential strand of our foreign policy. Once the printing press transformed knowledge distribution, propaganda became a core component of war. Both World Wars saw the use of newspapers, posters, radio and film for mass persuasion. Our challenge now is to craft an information war strategy that accounts for the media landscape, from Artificial Intelligence (AI) and social media to the still powerful legacy medium of broadcast television. India's private sector already excels in natural language processing (NLP), which is a dual-use capability in the context of information warfare. Indian AI models can easily train on a spectrum of languages, dialects and socio-cultural cues — Urdu and Punjabi variants across the border, regimental slang within the Pakistan army, even the memes that circulate in closed loop apps. Put simply, NLP could be used to speak inside the adversary's head, fracturing morale and redirecting attention long before any kinetic move is made. Synthetic video is just as dual-use. A well-known 2022 deepfake of President Volodymyr Zelensky urging Ukrainian troops to surrender went viral before Kyiv debunked it. Pakistan tried using low-grade gaming footage of fighter jets being shot out of the sky against us, yet unsuspecting users still amplified it. India's democratic fabric is a force multiplier: Journalists, fact-checkers and civic technologists can inoculate the public against synthetic videos even as the security establishment perfects its own offensive repertoire. Parallelly, New Delhi should rally around like-minded capitals to draft a military code of conduct — setting red lines for deepfake use during peacetime. Autonomous chatbots can also infiltrate adversary networks and poison their information space, while real-time AI-enabled dashboards track public sentiment. Building these capabilities is vital, but so is shielding citizens from misuse. India's current response — Press Information Bureau fact-checks, official military handles and the blocking of more than 8,000 accounts — works, but only up to a point. The government and platforms should plan in peacetime to create trusted information repositories, much as they did during Covid-19. Platform-originated feeds carrying verified advisories would have quelled the conflict time rumours that briefly sparked panic. Disinformation hops quickly from open networks to closed, encrypted apps. Public-private cooperation must therefore run deep and span multiple platforms, replicating the signal-sharing model now taking shape against online frauds and scams. After the Zelensky deepfake, X announced it would keep the clip online when shared to debunk disinformation, but remove it when shared to deceive — an approach that balances transparency with harm reduction. Meanwhile, large-scale media literacy drives should flip India's instinctive 'trust, then verify' mindset to 'verify, then trust', especially among users who see digital content as inherently authoritative. Winning the narrative is futile if the channels that deliver it can be jammed, spoofed, or severed. Information warfare thus unfolds on two inseparable fronts: The stories we tell, and the networks — satellites, cables — that carry those stories to friend and foe alike. Protecting and hardening this plumbing is as critical as shaping the content. Unauthorised Starlink terminals have already surfaced with militant groups in Manipur during an internet shutdown and with smugglers on the high seas. Recent Indian rules sensibly require low earth orbit satellite operators to demonstrate lawful interception capability, set up gateways in India, share terminal data with security agencies and prevent unverified foreign devices or offshore data decryption. Another front is physical resilience. India hosts just 17 sub-sea cables — Singapore has 26 — despite our 11,098 km coastline and Indo-Pacific location. Quad leaders' May 20, 2023 statement backed 'high-quality underwater cable networks' across the region. With India set to host the next summit, accelerating that initiative should be a priority. Domestic news channels repeatedly aired unverified 'exclusives' until government advisories intervened. Beyond restraining sensationalism on prime-time news, India needs a global voice. Attempts to expand Doordarshan (DD)'s international reach have stalled under thin finances, a legacy workforce, and dated production quality. Al Jazeera and Russia Today (RT) illustrate what focused investment can achieve for countries with far less soft power. If fixing DD requires a mission-mode effort, so be it. Credible, high-quality Indian perspectives must be available worldwide. India's information war doctrine must marry cutting-edge technology and robust public infrastructure with a society trained — beginning in school — to question, verify and act on reliable information. We have secured victory on the ground; the contest for minds and screens is still underway. Vivan Sharan is partner, Koan Advisory Group. The views expressed are personal. Get 360° coverage—from daily headlines to 100 year archives.
Hindustan Times
a day ago
- Hindustan Times
Ludhiana: Karwal calls Congress his home once again
Local politician Kamaljit Singh Karwal returned to the Congress party for the second time, after hopping between six different political platforms in the last 16 years. His latest homecoming was made official on Sunday in the presence of former chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi and senior Congress leaders including Bharat Bhushan Ashu and Rana Gurjeet Singh. Karwal, who last held affiliation with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), declared his return to Congress as an emotional 'ghar wapsi' (homecoming), saying the Congress is where he truly belongs. He claimed his decision was fuelled by frustration with AAP's alleged 'anti-people policies' and disregard for Punjabi interests. His political journey, however, paints a picture of a restless career marked by frequent realignments. Karwal's six-party trajectory includes stints with Lok Insaaf Party (LIP), Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), Congress, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), AAP, and now again Congress. He was elected a councillor in 2007 as an independent and in 2012 on the SAD ticket. Initially a close aide of SAD rebel Simarjeet Singh Bains. Karwal and Bains left SAD and formed LIP, but he parted ways and rejoined SAD in 2015, only to switch to Congress in 2016 before the 2017 Assembly polls. Karwal contested twice from Atam Nagar as a Congress candidate—both times unsuccessfully. In 2017, he lost to Bains, and in 2022, both Bains and Karwal lost to AAP's Kulwant Singh Sidhu. In December 2023, ahead of the 2024 general elections, Karwal exited Congress, citing internal mismanagement and leadership issues, and joined BJP. Within a year, he left BJP for AAP, welcomed by state AAP president Aman Arora. His latest return to Congress makes it his sixth political shift. Divided welcome exposes factions Interestingly, Karwal's old rival former MLAs Simarjeet Singh Bains and his brother Balwinder Singh Bains had also joined Congress, merging their LIP into the party ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. However, the Bains brothers were conspicuously absent at Karwal's re-induction event, as was Punjab Congress chief Amrinder Singh Raja Warring, who had welcomed Bains brothers into the party fold last year. This absence signals lingering tensions beneath the surface, though Karwal tried to downplay them. 'Congress is like a family to me. Fights happen in every family. I'm ready to work with everyone for the growth of the party,' he said, when asked about working alongside the Bains brothers. He also remarked that BJP has 'no future in Punjab' and despite aggressive campaigning, 'can never form a government in the state'. He admitted he made a mistake joining the saffron party and quickly corrected the course.
Indian Express
2 days ago
- Indian Express
‘Can't afford to dwell on them now': What Shashi Tharoor said on speaking to colleagues as Congress critique mounts
In the middle of a diplomatic mission to project India's zero-tolerance stance on terrorism, senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor finds himself at the centre of a political storm within his party for praising the Modi government's military strikes in Pakistan under Operation Sindoor. Tharoor's remarks, delivered during his tour of Brazil, Panama, and other nations, expose the divide in the Congress, which has accused the government of bypassing the party in these crucial foreign delegations. When asked about his party's continuing critique, Tharoor, leading one of the seven Indian delegations sent abroad, told journalists in Brazil, 'I think this is a time now for us to focus on our mission. Undoubtedly, in a thriving democracy, there are bound to be comments and criticisms, but I think at this point we can't afford to dwell on them. When we get back to India, no doubt we'll have our chance to speak to our colleagues, critics, media there. But right now we're focused on the countries we're coming to and getting the message out to the people here.' #WATCH | Brasilia, Brazil: When asked about criticism and questions raised by Congress, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor says, 'I think this is a time now for us to focus on our mission. Undoubtedly, in a thriving democracy, there are bound to be comments and criticisms, but I think at… — ANI (@ANI) June 1, 2025 The four-time MP's repeated praise for India's 'precise and calibrated' strikes on terror bases in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir has turned heads, especially as the Congress leadership, feeling increasingly marginalised, had not even recommended his name for the delegation. Congress had suggested leaders like Anand Sharma and Gaurav Gogoi, but the government handpicked Tharoor instead. His backing and endorsement of India's military response to the Pahalgam terror attack on April 22 has not gone down well with sections of the Congress. Speaking to the Indian-American community last week in New York, Tharoor said, 'I don't work for the government, as you know. I work for an opposition party. But I myself authored an op-ed in one of India's leading papers, the Indian Express, within a couple of days, saying the time had come to hit hard but hit smart. And I'm pleased to say that's exactly what India did.' In Panama, Tharoor underlined India's readiness to hit back at terrorism: 'What has changed in recent years is that the terrorists have also realised they will have a price to pay. On that, let there be no doubt.' He pointed to India's past actions, noting, 'We have struck at the Punjabi heartland of Pakistan by hitting terror bases, training centres, terror headquarters in nine places.' His comments have drawn the ire of Congress colleagues back home. Senior leader Jairam Ramesh labelled the government's decision to include Tharoor and others in the delegations without consultation as 'regrettable' and a sign of 'cheap political games.' 'The INC will not stoop to the pathetic level of the PM and the BJP,' Ramesh had said in a post on X days ago, making it clear that Tharoor's views did not represent the Congress line. Even party spokesperson Pawan Khera joined the chorus recently, sharing a critical excerpt from Tharoor's book 'The Paradoxical Prime Minister' on social media to mock his current position. After a long and successful day in Panama, i have to wind up at midnightvhere with departure for Bogota, Colombia in six hours, so I don't really have time for this — but anyway: For those zealots fulminating about my supposed ignorance of Indian valour across the LoC: in tge… — Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) May 29, 2025 The Thiruvananthapuram MP responded dismissively, posting, 'After a long and successful day in Panama, I have to wind up at midnight here with departure for Bogota, Colombia in six hours, so I don't really have time for this… But anyway: For those zealots fulminating about my supposed ignorance of Indian valour… critics and trolls are welcome to distort my views and words as they see fit. I genuinely have better things to do. Goodnight.'
