NEW DELHI – Veteran Indian lyricist-screenwriter Javed Akhtar today said itis “shameful” that the portrait of Muhammad Ali Jinnah hangs in AligarhMuslim University (AMU) but people, who are protesting against it, shouldalso oppose the “temples made to honour Godse”.

The 73-year-old writer took to Twitter to voice his opinion on the ongoingcontroversy at the university which was triggered after Aligarh MP SatishGautam objected to the Pakistan founder’s picture on the walls of the AMUstudent union office.

“Jinnah was neither a student nor a teacher of Aligarh. It’s a shame thathis portrait is there. The administration and students should voluntarilyremove it from there and those who were protesting against this portraitshould now protest against the temples made to honour Godse,” Akhtar wrote.

AMU spokesman Shafey Kidwai had defended the presence of the portrait,which has apparently been hanging there for decades, saying that Jinnah wasa founder member of the university court and was granted life membership ofthe student union. Traditionally, photographs of all life members areplaced on the walls of the student union office.

The row sparked violence at the campus yesterday which resulted in at leastsix people being injured when the police lobbed teargas shells to disperseAMU students, who were demanding the arrest of the protesters who hadearlier barged into the campus shouting slogans.

The AMU students alleged that the protesters were from Hindu Yuva Vahini,and were allowed to leave a police station even after being initiallydetained.