The march was taken out by student leader Ajay Singh, grandson of BJP MLA from Barauli constituency in Aligarh Thakur Dalveer Singh. (Express Photo)
A group of AMU students on Monday took out a candlelight march on campus to pay tribute to former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, defying a varsity direction to only march till AMU circle to avoid affecting “peace and harmony”.
The march was taken out by student leader Ajay Singh, grandson of BJP MLA from Barauli constituency in Aligarh Thakur Dalveer Singh.
Following this, another group of students claimed to have lodged a complaint with the varsity proctor, claiming the march was politically motivated to affect peace on campus. The group was led by AMU student union secretary Mohammad Fahad.
While AMU proctor Mohsin Khan refused to comment, saying he was on leave, Public Relation Officer (PRO) Omar S Peerzada said, “AMU has a culture and tradition like every other university. There was condolence message from the V-C Tariq Mansoor and the AMU fraternity mourned. We have our own way of addressing such things. Also, we or the students never did anything like that… peace marches or candle marches. We do things as per our own rules.”
When contacted, Ajay Singh said he had went ahead with the march despite not getting permission as he had already invited people. He also accused the proctor of making a biased decision.
“I had requested to take out the march from the university staff club to Bab-e-Saiyyad gate. But permission was denied on the grounds that it will affect peace and harmony of the university. We were asked to take out the march till the AMU circle on campus,” he said.
“I had tried to convince the proctor that it will be a peaceful march… but was denied permission. It was a biased decision, as during the time of the Jinnah issue, the Bab-e-Saiyyad gate was closed for months during student protests,” he added.
He also claimed that local police were called in to stop the march. Fahad, on the other hand, claimed Singh had taken out the march to gain political mileage. “I do not understand why we need a march to remember our former PM. If there was a condolence meeting, we too would have joined it. But we opposed it as it was irrelevant and without any logical reason. Also, most of the students who were part of the march were outsiders,” he said.