The Aligarh Muslim University(AMU) has appointed a controversial historian as Adjunct Professor in the  Department of History.

Web portal SabrangIndia  reported that the appointment of Dr Makhan Lal, the “Sangh Parivar point man for re-writing history books,” has been made by “Tariq Mansoor the  newly-appointed  Vice Chancellor  of AMU.”

“The professor closely associated with the Sangh Parivar ‘s project of re-writing (read manipulating) history will now be part of a history department that boasts of being the department of the world renowned medieval history expert, Irfan Habib,” the portal  reported.

It quoted a 2006 report  by the Indian Express on  how one of the 16 Volumes of the History of the Jan Sangh authored by Makhan Lal was withdrawn four months after it was released as part of the silver jubilee celebrations in Mumbai.

The series, written by Lal under the supervision of senior BJP leader J P Mathur, carried a foreword by then Leader of the Opposition in  the Lok Sabha L K Advani.

The History of Jana Sangh, reportedly contained certain objectionable portions, sources had then claimed. The book was withdrawn after senior leaders noticed some controversial references to Muslims. There was confirmation to the media then of the sale of the controversial volume having been stopped.

It was then reported by the paper that the references said the ”anti-Muslim sentiments” prevailing in the pre-Independence period were due to the Congress policy of appeasement of Muslims.

In 2003, Lal was sacked from another Institute for alleged sexual offences.

Apart from being accused of tampering with history in school textbooks,  Lal had  faced allegations of not just forcing students to learn history the “right” way, but also harassing girl students in his capacity as director of the Institute of Heritage Research and Management in New Delhi.