The Centre for Women’s Studies and Development at Banaras Hindu University on Wednesday denied having invited Nita Ambani to be a visiting professor, a day after students posted an image of the purported invitation letter on social media and protested on the campus.

The students said they had heard that apart from the wife of Mukesh Ambani, the study centre also planned to invite the wives of industrialists Gautam Adani and Lakshmi Mittal, and questioned their credentials for the post of visiting professor.

Ambani and Adani are perceived as close to the ruling BJP. Media reports said Ambani’s Reliance Industries Limited had denied that Nita Ambani had received any such invitation letter from BHU.

K.K. Mishra, dean of the BHU social science department under which the women’s study centre functions, too denied any such invite after the department held a meeting on Wednesday afternoon.

“The BHU has cleared its stand. The university administration never discussed any such issue and never sent any invitation to any of the wives of the industrialists,” Mishra told The Telegraph over the phone.

Asked about the student-circulated WhatsApp image of the purported invitation letter to Nita Ambani, Mishra hung up.

Nidhi Sharma, coordinator of the women’s study centre who had attended the afternoon meeting, was more opaque.

“We withdraw ourselves from any such controversy. We are withdrawing ourselves,” she told this newspaper.

Asked whether she was talking about “withdrawing” the purported invitation letter, Sharma said: “No, I don’t want to speak much. I am not into it.”

Asked why the students had protested then, she hung up.

The student-circulated document is dated March 12, addressed to Nita Ambani and written on the letterhead of BHU. It carries the purported signatures of Mishra and Sharma.

The protesting students have said that only academics or women achievers like Mary Kom should be visiting professors.

“We came to know about the invitation to Nita Ambani from a copy of the letter signed by Mishra and Sharma and posted its images on social media,” a student of the history department who was part of Tuesday’s protest said, asking not to be named.

“Later, we heard from some of the professors that Lakshmi Mittal’s wife Usha Mittal and Gautam Adani’s wife Priti Adani would also be invited as visiting professors.”

Requesting anonymity, a faculty member from the women’s study centre said: “The post of visiting professor is very prestigious and I don’t think these wives of industrialists are qualified for the job.”

She added: “We had held a meeting in the department on Women’s Day and discussed many subjects. The dean of social sciences and the coordinator of the study centre were present but nobody told us about such a proposal. We learnt about it only when a group of students organised the protest.”