The crowd hung about, and increased, without any apparent reason. Lingering in the street in front of the guesthouse of the Dar-ul-Uloom, the few who talked did so in hushed tones. Others walked around the blue Tata Indigo car parked in front of the building, looking for clues about the identity of the latest visitor. Except for the ‘mediawallahs’, the tea and jalebi stalls were virtually empty. The crowd stared at them, and those who talked to them. Ahead of Wednesday’s meeting of the Shoora to decide the fate of Maulana Ghulam Mohammad Vastanvi, the Vice-Chancellor of one of the most influential Islamic seminaries, the common people of Deoband have given unto themselves a gag order. Four of the 18 members of the Shoora had reached Deoband at the time of filing the report. Thirteen is the quorum for the meeting to take place. Vastanvi, along with his primary backer Maulana Badruddin Ajmal, was scheduled to reach Deoband from Delhi later in the evening. At about 4 pm, the crowd moved towards the end of the street. There, a man was distributing free copies of the Khabardaar Khadeed, a Urdu weekly. Soon, groups of people had formed on the street, with those who knew how to read the language reading out loud from the weekly. Everyone was interested in the reports about the verdict in the Sabarmati Express burning case. The centre-spread was about the Dar-ul-Uloom, with a photo of V-C Vastanvi. Everyone skipped the page. They disbursed soon after. Everyone was interested in the reports about the verdict in the Sabarmati Express burning case. The centre-spread was about the Dar-ul-Uloom, with a photo of V-C Vastanvi. Everyone skipped the page. They disbursed soon after. Earlier in the day, Maulana Arshad Madani ruled himself out of contention for the post of the V-C. “I am not interested in becoming the Vice-Chancellor,” he said, insisting that the controversy was an internal affair of the seminary that should be left to the Shoora to sort out. “He has said that he will modernise the Uloom. If that happens, they will start canteens inside, students will not come out and eat from here,” said a shopkeeper explaining the rationale behind his opposition to Vastanvi.
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