Mohammad Ali Jauhar University campus in Rampur.

NEW DELHI: Targeting Yogi Adityanath over the proposed demolition of 38 buildings at senior Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Azam Khan‘s Mohammad Ali Jauhar University, former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti on Sunday said the Uttar Pradesh chief minister should “take a lesson from Jantar Mantar.”The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) president was referring to the youth-led protests at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar, which led to Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan’s resignation over the alleged NEET (UG) question paper leak and other education-related issues.“Destroying an institution of learning like Jauhar University displays nothing but hatred and vengeance. Yogi should take a lesson from Jantar Mantar and see how the youth of this country are rejecting the politics of hate and division.

Stand with the protesting students,” she wrote on X.Mufti was responding to a post by SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, who said that the party’s MPs and MLAs were taking part in a protest by students seeking to “save Jauhar University” in Rampur.“The ‘Protect Education’ movement will also triumph! To encourage the students who have sat on a dharna to save Jauhar University in Rampur, our MPs and MLAs are participating,” Yadav wrote in his post.Questioning the Uttar Pradesh government’s stand, he asked why the constructions at Jauhar University could not be regularised when similar structures were allegedly regularised through administrative orders.“If the BJP government can regularise other constructions based on the UP government’s administrative order, then why not Jauhar University? Why this discrimination and malice against Jauhar University?” the former Uttar Pradesh chief minister asked.The SP has demanded that the proposed demolition be halted, alleging that the move would adversely impact the future of students.“Our collective demand is that the BJP should not throw the future of our youth into the fire of its vengeance,” Yadav stated.The remarks come amid a proposed demolition drive at Mohammad Ali Jauhar University after the Rampur Development Authority (RDA) ordered the removal of 38 allegedly unauthorised buildings on the campus.The RDA issued a notice to the Jauhar Trust, which runs the university, on June 28, alleging that 82,309.80 square metres of construction within the campus had been carried out illegally. According to the authority, 38 blocks were built without approved building maps, while only two structures had received prior permission from the District Panchayat.The authority alleged that the secretary of the Jauhar Trust failed to submit approval documents within the stipulated period. It granted the trust an additional 15 days to remove the 38 structures, warning that demolition proceedings would be initiated if it failed to comply.The demolition order was issued by the RDA vice-chairman, who also serves as the Rampur District Magistrate, under provisions of the Uttar Pradesh Urban Planning and Development Act, 1973.