Jinnah portrait at AMU sparks row

ALIGARH (UP): An MP of the ruling BJP has asked Aligarh Muslim University to explain why it displays a portrait of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, triggering a row days after a student sought permission to hold an Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) shakha (meeting) on its premises.

In a letter written to Vice Chancellor Tariq Mansoor on Monday, Aligarh MP Satish Gautam objected to Pakistan founder's picture on the walls of the AMU student union office.

Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) spokesman Shafey Kidwai on Tuesday defended the portrait, apparently hanging there for decades, saying that Jinnah was a founder of the university 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 was also accorded life membership of the AMUSU in 1938. He was the founder member of the University Court in 1920 and also a donor, the spokesman said.

He was granted membership before the demand of Pakistan had been raised by the Muslim League," he said.

The spokesman said no national leader had raised any objection to the photo even after Independence. These included Mahatma Gandhi, Maulana Azad, Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, C Rajagopalachari, Rajendra Prasad and Jawaharlal Nehru.

Shafey said AMU student union has a long tradition of granting life membership to prominent people in politics, social and educational fields.

Their photographs were a part of the rich heritage of undivided India and no one ever thought of raising this issue before, he said.

The first recorded life membership by the student union was the one granted to Mahatma Gandhi on October 29, 1920, he said.