BJP MP Varun Gandhi on Tuesday slammed the choice of Santishree Dhulipudi Pandit as JNU vice-chancellor, saying such "mediocre appointments serve to damage our human capital and our youth`s future".

With few higher education institutions on a par with global standards, he said, India needs to have right leaders to shape the journey for universities likely to succeed and, as such, appointing someone with little to offer in academic vision, credentials or even the ability to communicate, is "a path to mediocrity and long-term illiteracy for our human capital".