ALIGARH: The simmering discontent triggered by the demand for removing aportrait of Muhammad Ali Jinnah from a hall, has now blown up into afull-scale confrontation between Hindutva elements and the agitatingstudents of the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU).
The controversial portrait is hanging in AMU Students Union Hall archivebuilding.
Internet services have been suspended. Teachers affiliated with the AMUTAand women students have joined the protest marches.
Noted historian Irfan Habib has said Jinnah was part of history and byremoving his portrait one could not alter history. Other senior facultymembers and office bearers of the teachers’ body have also echoed similarsentiments.
The AMU students union leaders spearheading the current agitation havedemanded firm action against those who vandalised the premises and enteredthe campus to create tension, resulting in violence that injured a dozenstudents.
The whole campus has become a cantonment with heavy deployment of PAC, RAFand the local police. The additional director general of police heldseveral rounds of talks with senior district officials on Friday. Thedharna and demonstrations continue as Hindutva groups are adamant on theirdemand which is being opposed by the AMU students and teachers.
Meanwhile, AMU has clarified that the students are protesting to press fortheir demand for immediate action against the so called Hindutva activistswho barged into the campus and for judicial enquiry into incidents ofLathi-charge and other demands as contained in their memorandum given onMay 2. A spokesperson said that the students’ agitation is not related tothe portrait of M.A. Jinnah.A
The Vice Chancellor, Professor Tariq Mansoor, along with his wife, DrHameeda Tariq, for the second time visited the injured students admitted inthe University’s Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College (JNMC) and enquired abouttheir treatment and health. The students were injured in a policelathi-charge while they were on their way to lodge an FIR at the CivilLines Police Station against those who barged into the campus and disturbedthe peace.
The Vice Chancellor also visited Bab-e-Syed where students are staging asit in for fulfillment of various demands.
The state government, according to a prominent ex-student Jasim Mohammad,former media adviser to the VC, has already ordered a magisterial inquiryinto the incidents. Jasim said the Indian Muslims or the AMU community hasno relations with ideology of the Muslim League or Jinnah and they wereagainst the division of the country.
Jasim Mohammad told IANS the episodes began with a letter written byAligarh MP Satish Kumar Gautam where had demanded the Vice Chancellor toremove Jinnah’s portrait. “Later a group of 10-14 armed activists of theHindu Yuva Vahini (HYV), accompanied by policemen, came to the UniversityCircle and moved towards the Bab-e-Syed where they attacked security guardsand students.
Extra police force came and took the HYV cadres into custody but releasedthem from the Civil Lines Police Station. When the AMU students movedtowards the police station to get their FIR registered and protest againstthe release of the HYV cadres, the police lathi-charged them and firedteargas shells, due to which many students received serious injuries,”Jasim Mohammad said.