At least 28 students were injured at the Aligarh Muslim University when some right wing activists stormed into the campus on Wednesday and attacked them – allegedly with police backing — in connection with a row over a decades-old photograph of freedom fighter Muhammad Ali Jinnah.
The right wing activists have been demanding the removal of Jinnah’s photograph, which students have been fighting hard to resist for sometime. Former Vice President, Hamid Ansari was to speak there, but the programme had to be cancelled due to this.
On Wednesday, the right-wing activists descended on the campus shouting slogans and despite police trying to resist them, they continued to intimidate the students. Then the students clashed with the activists and the latter were taken to the police station. Later, when the students gathered near the main gate preparing to march towards the local police station because the Hindutva activists had been released by then, the police used lathicharge on the students recklessly. The Hindutva activists too, returned by then, it was reported.
The photograph has been at the University’s union hall since 1938, but now the right-wing activists want it removed. Jinnah was actively involved in India’s struggle for freedom, but later his Muslim League formed a “two nation theory” that paved the way for the partition of India and the formation of Pakistan.
Satish Gautam, the BJP lawmaker from Aligarh wrote to the University’s Vice Chancellor Tariq Mansoor why the portrait was there. The University authorities had then informed that Jinnah had been granted life membership by the students union, and photographs of all life members were placed on the walls of students union hall. This includes Mahatma Gandhi, B. R. Ambedkar, among others.
Hundreds of students are now continuing with a sit-in demonstration at the university’s main gate demanding action against the right-wing activists.
