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Updated: Mar 26, 2020 16:04 IST

A social media post by a Jamia faculty member that spoke about failing students who did not back the protests against the amended citizenship law has led to a huge controversy. On Wednesday, Delhi’s Jamia Millia Islamia university announced that the faculty member had been suspended and an inquiry ordered.

AP Siddiqui, registrar of the university, issued the suspension order for the teacher. It said the faculty member had tweeted that all students “except 15 non-Muslims have been passed as they did not support” the Citizenship Amendment Act protests.

The university authorities felt that the social media post incited communal disharmony which is unbecoming of a teacher and against the spirit of the code of conduct. It classified the tweet as a case of serious misconduct

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Siddiqui’s order said that the vice chancellor had decided to place Ahmad under suspension with immediate effect pending an inquiry.

Abrar Ahmad, an assistant professor in the department of electrical engineering, however, insisted that his post had been misunderstood and was only meant as satire and not a factual assertion.

Ahmad turned to Facebook to argue that it was a satire to explain how minorities were targeted by CAA and he couldn’t have failed anyone since there were no exams.

“It was a satire, parody, a co-relation to explain how minorities are being targeted by CAA and it would be as bad as a teacher saying all minority students are failed and have to reappear,” he wrote.

He added that no such examination had taken place and thus failing non Muslim students was out of question.

The assistant professor claimed that in a career spanning over a decade there was no case of discrimination against him. He added that the limitation of characters on Twitter may have led to misinterpretation of his post.

“Now, since the university has ordered an inquiry in this issue, everything will be clear soon,” he added in the Facebook post.