AMU students’ coordination committee seeks action against dean for ‘threatening’ anti-CAA protesters

Aligarh: The students’ coordination committee of the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) on Thursday burnt an effigy of the varsity’s dean near Baab-e-Syed gate and demanded police action against him for allegedly threatening students opposing the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). Former AMU students’ union president and spokesman of the Students’ Coordination Committee Faizul Hasan has lodged a complaint with Senior Superintendent of Police Akash Kulhari in this regard, the students’ body said. [caption id=“attachment_7895991” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File photo of anti-CAA protests. PTI[/caption] In the complaint, Hasan alleged that while AMU vice chancellor Tariq Mansoor was on Wednesday persuading protesting medicos to resume attending classes, newly appointed Dean of Students’ Welfare Mujahid Beg allegedly told them to be “thankful” as only hands of some of the students were broken in the police action on 15 December and “no one had been killed”. Students of the Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College are boycotting classes as part of the continuing anti-CAA protest at the campus. The dean’s remarks infuriated the agitating students who felt that they were being threatened and pressurised to call off their stir. When contacted, AMU spokesperson Shafey Kidwai admitted that some of the “off the cuff remarks” by the dean might have caused confusion. “He had, however, no intention of threatening the protesting students but was just reminding them of some past events which the university had witnessed and which were even worse than today’s crisis,” Kidwai clarified. He said that the vice chancellor’s initiative was part of an ongoing outreach programme to persuade the protesting students in different faculties to start attending classes “even while continuing with their peaceful protest against what they feel is unjust legislation”. Meanwhile, seven students including two former leaders were booked by the police for brandishing their shoes at university proctor Afifullah Khan after he objected to outsiders joining the protest on the campus. According to circle officer Anil Samania, Nadeem Ansari, the former vice president of students’ union and Hamza Sufian were booked under relevant sections of the IPC following a written complaint by the proctors’ office. The incident happened on 17 January when a large number of students were protesting on the campus and the proctor reportedly objected to the presence of some outsiders. Students at AMU on Thursday also held a meeting to register support for film star Nasiruddin Shah, an alumnus of AMU, who they alleged was being targeted by sections of social media for voicing his support for anti-CAA  protests. The varsity’s teachers’ body — Aligarh Muslim University Teachers’ Association (AMUTA) took out a procession demanding a judicial inquiry into last month’s campus violence. They also passed a resolution urging AMU students to end their boycott of classes and exams while simultaneously carrying out peaceful protests against CAA.