Jaipur: Congress state president Govind Singh Dotasra Friday opposed the appointment of Prof BP Saraswat as the new vice-chancellor of University of Rajasthan. Prof BP Saraswat is currently the vice-chancellor of University of Kota, where he was appointed in July 2025, and prior to that, he was the BJP district president for Ajmer Rural.Dotasra said, “Sanghikaranof the education system is being done under BJP govt is now becoming clearly evident.” He added it is deeply concerning that individuals linked to RSS and BJP are being appointed to key positions in universities and the education sector based on ideology rather than merit.“This serves as a glaring example of the serious concern regarding the country’s education system—an issue that Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi has been raising on every platform. There is an accelerated effort to impose the narrow ideology of RSS—the organisation upon which BJP relies for governance—across the education system and institutions nationwide,” said Dotasra.The state Congress president said that appointments to key positions in autonomous academic institutions like universities should be based on merit, experience, and an academic vision.“However, the BJP is undermining institutional autonomy and ruining the education system by installing individuals aligned with Sangh’s ideology. This jeopardizes both the impartiality and the independence of education,” he added.Speaking to TOI, Prof Saraswat said, “Today I am not a political entity; my focus will be on ensuring that the university functions properly. Every student will be important to me because a university functions properly only when students are there. I will also start working on the pending issues of teachers and university staff within a month.”Meanwhile, Rajasthan University Teachers’ Association said it is optimistic about the new vice-chancellor’s tenure. “We hope that he will address long-pending promotion of teachers, as he did at the University of Kota, and initiate recruitment to fill vacancies for teaching and non-teaching posts. We also expect him to take up the pension issue of university employees with the state govt, given the university’s financial constraints, and promote research that contributes to society. The association will stand with the VC in all constructive efforts for the university’s development,” said RUTA president Naveen Sharma.
