Shillong/Guwahati, Jan 25 (HP/PTI): Keeping up his relentless verbal assault on the University of Science Technology Meghalaya (USTM), Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Sunday alleged that the privately-owned varsity was started with money that came from an organisation connected with terror outfit Al Qaeda.
He urged the Sanatani (read Hindu) people of Assam not to enrol in that varsity, located near Guwahati over the border in Ri-Bhoi, and “stop patronising it”.
“I have been saying for long that USTM is a place of fraud. Now, when this woman has been arrested, her details have been deleted from the university’s website,” Sarma said, when asked for his reaction to Delhi Police apprehending a Guwahati woman while driving in a vehicle using forged diplomatic registration plates.
The woman, Asma Begum, reportedly has ties to USTM, but their nature is unclear. Sarma, however, appeared to relish another chance to attack one of his favourite bugbears.
The Assam CM had earlier held USTM and its chancellor Mahbabul Hoque responsible for so-called “flood jihad” against Guwahati and asked the people of Assam to refrain from “supporting” the institution and its proprietor.
He claimed that the money with which Haque had founded USTM had come from an organisation with connections to Al Qaeda.
“We have complete information on it. That’s why I have been saying that we should stop patronising USTM,” he said without providing any evidence.
“I request people of Assam’s Sanatani society to not study in USTM. The certificates given by it could become irrelevant,” he added.
Sarma also mentioned allegations against Hoque of forging his OBC certificate and being arrested multiple times after a series of cases were registered across the state over the controversy related to promising students to allow unfair means in exams.
