Mediocre appointments damage human capital, youth's future: Varun Gandhi on new JNU VC

New Delhi, Feb 8: Varun Gandhi has continued to cause embarssment to his party as he has now slammed the choice of Santishree Dhulipudi Pandit as JNU vice-chancellor. He has said that such "mediocre appointments serve to damage our human capital and our youth's future".

He shared on Twitter the press release put out by Pandit after she took over, and said this is an exhibition of "illiteracy". Gandhi said, "This press release from the new JNU VC is an exhibition of illiteracy, littered with grammatical mistakes (would strive vs will strive; students friendly vs student-friendly; excellences vs excellence). Such mediocre appointments serve to damage our human capital & our youth's future."

The central government appointed Pandit as the vice-chancellor of Jawaharlal Nehru University, making her the first woman to hold the post. The 59-year-old Pandit is also an alumna of JNU where she pursued her MPhil as well as PhD in International Relations.

In the recent past, the Pilibhit MP had taken an anti-BJP stand on several occasions.

He had spoken in support of the agitating farmers and even tweeted a short clip of a speech made by former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in support of farmers.

Also, he had taken a stand against the Union Minister of state for home Ajay Misra Teni and his son Ashish Misra whose vehicles allegedly mowed down four protesting farmers in Lakhimpur Kheri in October 3. Varun tweeted a video of the incident and wrote, "The video is crystal clear. Protestors cannot be silenced through murder. There has to be accountability for the innocent blood of farmers that has been spilt and justice must be delivered before a message of arrogance and cruelty enters the minds of every farmer."

Varun's statements have not been officially countered by the BJP but the party made its displeasure clear by dropping him from the party's national executive.