Aligarh: The Mohammad Ali Jinnah Jinnah portrait controversy has erupted in violence with members of a right wing student outfit, Hindu Vahini allegedly beating up AMU students. The immediate provocation for the thrashing came when the AMU students tried to stop a group of protestors from trying to burn an effigy of Jinnah.
Several were injured when the police lobbed teargas shells to disperse AMU students, who were demanding the arrest of the group which had earlier barged into the campus shouting slogans. Hospital sources said about 20 students were treated for injuries.
A function to grant life membership of the student union to former vice president Hamid Ansari, scheduled for Wednesday evening, was called off and he returned to Delhi. The AMU students alleged that the protesters were from the Hindu Yuva Vahini, and were allowed to leave a police station even after being initially detained.
AMU spokesman Shafey Kidwai defended the portrait, apparently hanging at AMU for decades, saying that Jinnah was a founder member of the University Court and granted life membership of the student union. “Traditionally, photographs of all life members are placed on the walls of the student union,” he said.
JINNAH PITS BJP VS BJP Pakistan’s founder Muhamm-ed Ali Jinnah seems to have his fans in the BJP, too.
One such person is UP Minister Swami Prasad Maurya, who has described Jinnah as a ‘mahapurush.’Reacting to a recent controversy over removal of Jinnah’s portrait from the Aligarh Muslim University premises, Maurya said: “If people point fingers at ‘mahapurush’ (great men) who have contributed to nation building, then it is a matter of shame. Even Jinnah had contributed to nation-building before partition.’’
Taking offence, party colleague and BJP’s Rajya Sabha member Harnath Singh demanded an apology from Maurya, a minister in the Yogi Adityanath cabinet. Speaking to the media, Singh said, “I feel Maurya has lost interest in the party. I have tweeted this matter to PM Modi, BJP president Amit Shah and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. I have demanded that either Swami Prasad Maurya apologise or be shown the way out of the party.” Later, Maurya denied having made any such statement. (There was no statement. You are making a mountain of a molehill.)