Internet blocked at AMU, stir continues
The clashes happened when the students were demanding action against a group that entered the campus and wanted Jinnah’s portrait removed from the union office, which has the framed image for decades.
The row started after BJP parliamentarian Satish Gautam wrote to the AMU authorities, objecting to the portrait.
The university said portraits of all life members of the student union hang there. Jinnah, a founder member of the university court, had also been given this honour before Partition.
AMU vice chancellor Tariq Mansoor on Friday visited the Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College Hospital where three of the students wounded in the police lathicharge are being treated. Also, he visited the protesting students and assured them of his “solidarity”.
The AMU Teachers’ Association (AMUTA) has sent a memorandum to President Ram Nath Kovind asking him to “urgently institute” a high-level judicial probe.
AMUTA secretary Najmul Islam said they have urged the President to treat the matter seriously as it also involved a breach in the security of former Vice President Hamid Ansari, who was supposed to be felicitated at the university the day the violence broke out.
Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath sought a detailed report from the AMU management and assured that he will look into the matter.
He said the person behind the Partition of India cannot be accorded respect. But state minister Swami Prasad Maurya praised Jinnah’s contribution to India’s freedom struggle, saying his work before Partition cannot be ignored.
MP LIKENS JINNAH TO GANDHI, NEHRU
GORAKHPUR: Mohammad Ali Jinnah played a role in India’s freedom struggle just like Mahatma Gandhi or Jawaharlal Nehru, Gorakhpur MP Praveen Nishad said on Friday.
“BJP is politicising the issue which is highly condemnable. Like Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru, Jinnah also contributed to the freedom movement. The BJP is dividing people on the basis of caste and religion by raising such issues. When we talk about Bhagat Singh, we also remember Ashfaqullah Khan and Veer Abdul Hameed,” he said.