The minister further recalled land donation by the Jat king to the varsity and said that his “contribution in the field of education cannot be forgotten.”
Fuelling the ongoing controversy over Pakistan's founder Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s portrait on Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) campus, Haryana Finance Minister Captain Abhimanyu now wants the varsity to be named after Jat king Mahendra Pratap Singh.
The Haryana FM, while addressing a gathering at a ground-breaking ceremony of a Jat Dharamsala in Rewari recently, called Jinnah “responsible for destroying the integrity of the nation”, and even though “his portrait is displayed in the varsity, but no picture of Raja Mahendra Pratap has been installed there.” The minister further recalled land donation by the Jat king to the varsity and said that his "contribution in the field of education cannot be forgotten".
Meanwhile, the Aligarh Muslim University Students' Union (AMUSU) leaders began their indefinite relay hunger strike late last night demanding judicial enquiry into the violence on the campus over Jinnah's portrait.
Earlier, several AMU students sat on an indefinite dharna after a clash with the police on May 2 when they were demanding action against the right-wing Hindu activists, who had entered the campus and shouted slogans against Jinnah's portrait.
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However, former AMU vice-chancellor Lt Gen. (retd) Zameer Uddin Shah has said that the incident which took place on May 2 was not concerning Jinnah's portrait on AMU premises. In a statement issued, he claimed that the attack by armed goons at the AMU campus, during the campus visit of former vice president Hamid Ansari, was "actually an attempt to target Ansari by forces inimical to him".
(With inputs from PTI)