Meerut (UP), Jun 3 (IANS): After UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath and Yoga Guru Ramdev becoming a part of curriculum, the Meerut university has now decided to include the works of renowned poet Bashir Badr in the curriculum for Urdu undergraduate students.

The Board of Studies of Chaudhary Charan Singh University announced the decision to include Badr and other prominent poets from western UP - Ismail Meeruthi, Vishnu Prabhakar, Kunwar Bechain and Sudama Pandey, among others - in the curriculum for Urdu.

"Under the New Education Policy, the University Grants Commission (UGC) has come up with a new syllabus which was sent to us," said Prof Aslam Jamshedpuri, head of the department of Urdu.

He said, "The directions we got are that 70 per cent of the syllabus will be determined by the UGC while 30 per cent will be framed by the university."

Pro vice chancellor of the university, Prof Y. Vimla, said, "While exercising the discretion to decide what makes up 30 per cent of the syllabus, keeping regional significance in mind, we decided to include these poets."

Bashir Badr belongs to Meerut and ironically, his house was burnt down in communal riots in 1987.

His famous poem, "Log toot jaate hain ek ghar banane mein/Tum taras nahin khaate, bastiyan jalane mein (They break themselves in their effort to build a home, you show no mercy in burning their villages"), was a testimony to the incident.

Badr is 86 now, has dementia and does not recognise anyone. He lives in Bhopal now.

His daughter Saba Khan, 54, who lives in Meerut, said, "This initiative will preserve his legacy. His poetry will be taught at the university and he will live on in the hearts of people. His ghazals and couplets written with the 1987 riots in mind, have become immortal."