New Delhi, January 29: Nine private universities, which have been shortlisted for the Institute of Eminence (IoE) tag by Ministry of Human Resources and Development (HRD), may be denied the top accreditation. The Intelligence Bureau, in a note sent to the government in December 2018, red-flagged these instituted as "anti-Modi", a report said.

The varsities which have been marked adversely include Ashoka University, KREA and Azim Premji University. Key members of the governing council of the three institutes have been categorised as "unrelenting critics" of the government headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, The Print reported. Jio Institute Gets ‘Institution of Eminence’ Tag! Here's the Reason Why Government Selected It Even Before Its Establishment.

Notably, the vice-chancellor of Ashoka University is IAS Pratap Bhanu Mehta, who has written several columns fiercely criticising the performance of PM Modi. As per the IB note cited in the report, the Intelligence has also mentioned the varsity's chairman Ashish Dhawan, stating that he "funds anti-government propaganda sites like the Wire.in".

Similarly, the governing board of KREA University, which is yet to become operational, includes former RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan, who has openly criticised several policies of the Narendra Modi government, including demonetisation.

For Azim Premji University, the IB note states that the philanthropic firm led by its founder Azim Premji has criticised the government for "growing fund crunch in MGNREGA" -- the rural employment generation programme. It further adds that Premji had criticised the Centre's performance on Smart City projects.

"At the Wipro earthian awards 2016, Premji said: ‘Smart city projects today is more talk than action. It has got a lot of traction from the Prime Minister, but its implementation has been very shallow," the IB note reportedly quotes Premji as saying.

LatestLY has not confirmed the authenticity of the Intelligence note cited in reports. R Subrahmanyam, the higher education secretary in the HRD Ministry, has claimed that no such report from the Intelligence Bureau exists.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jan 29, 2019 07:59 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).