KANPUR: Chhatrapati Shahu Ji Maharaj University (CSJMU), Kanpur, has a new job in hand — to trace the educational record of former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee . He did his MA (political science) in 1947 from Kanpur’s DAV College, which is affiliated to the university.The hunt for the documents gained momentum soon after Vajpayee’s demise. Members of local BJP unit met CSJMU vice-chancellor Prof Neelima Gupta on Tuesday and requested her to help search the educational records of former PM for the upcoming museum which will be dedicated to the nation. The matter earlier came to light in 2015 when defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman had approached BR Ambedkar University, Agra, seeking his educational records for a documentary. In 1947, DAV College was affiliated to Agra University as Kanpur University came into being in 1966.DAV College was also affiliated to Agra universityThe university, however, informed Sitharaman that it did not have any such record in its database, and also claimed that his educational records were transferred to CSM University (Kanpur University).Agra University, established in 1927, had many colleges affiliated to it, including DAV College, Kanpur. Later, the university was split into 10 city-specific universities, including Kanpur’s CSJMU), Lucknow University and Bundelkhand University.Both DAV College and Kanpur University had denied having received any records of Vajpayee’s educational qualifications. Though the then registrar of Agra University, BK Pandey, accepted that Sitharaman had sought his academic records for a personal documentary project, but they could not be found despite several efforts.It may be mentioned that the local unit of BJP, peeved over DAV College stand that it did not have Vajpayee’s post-graduation records, had even launched an agitation, but the matter later subsided. The party’s city unit on Tuesday met CSJMU VC Prof Neelima Gupta demanding her to hand over the educational records of the former PM. “Today, we have met vice-chancellor of CSJMU Prof Neelima Gupta and requested her to hand over educational records of our late former PM. The VC has assured us of forming a team to search for his missing post-graduation degree-,”said BJP district president, Surendra Maithani.“Once Atalji’s missing educational record is found, we will hand over it to the concerned authorities of the upcoming museum which will be dedicated to the nation”. But if the authorities fail to trace them, then we will meet the chancellor of these universities, he said further. “The college does not have degrees of Vajpayee because at that time the degrees used to be given directly to students. However, we will once again search for the records,” said DAV College’s principal Amit Srivastava.BR Ambedkar University’s vice-chancellor Arvind Dixit said, “The educational records of Vajpayeeji are not available with us. DAV College from where he did his post-graduation got affiliated to Kanpur University in 1966. All the records of DAV College were handed over to Kanpur University. Once again we will try to trace them.” CSJMU vice-chancellor Prof Neelima Gupta claimed that the academic records of the students of all colleges are maintained by the university to which it is affiliated.

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