The Jamia Millia Islamia University on Thursday suspended a professor for tweeting that he would pass all his students except the 15 “non-Muslims” who supported the Citizenship Amendment Act. The professor had later described his tweet as a “parody” to explain how the government was discriminating against a specific religious community through the law.

Abrar Ahmad, who is an assistant professor at the university, wrote on Twitter on Wednesday that barring 15 non-Muslim students, he had passed everyone in an examination. He later deleted the tweet.

After his tweet triggered backlash, Ahmad clarified that there had been no such examination and the post was a parody to explain an “issue”. “The post is a parody to explain how the government is discriminating a community,” Ahmad wrote. “There has been no such exam or results. It [the tweet] is just to explain an issue. I never discriminate.”

“It was a satire, parody, a correlation to explain how minorities are being targeted by CAA and it would as bad as a teacher saying ‘that all minority students are failed and have to reappear’,” he added. Abrar claimed that he had been teaching for more than 12 years and no student had ever accused him of discriminating against them.

The university, however, said that Ahmad’s tweet about failing non-Muslim students was “serious misconduct” and incited communal disharmony. “Dr. Abrar Ahmad, assistant professor of Jamia University tweeted in public domain as to failing 15 non-Muslim students in an exam,” the university wrote on its official Twitter handle. “This is a serious misconduct inciting communal disharmony. The university suspends him pending inquiry.”

Students of Jamia university have strongly opposed the Citizenship Amendment Act and staged protests against it. One such protest had led to police brutality on the campus in December last year. Later, shocking videos emerged of the Delhi Police barging into the university’s library and using force on students.