The row over the portrait of Mohammed Ali Jinnah in Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) seems to have intensified and the protests have reached Delhi. Students are protesting outside Uttar Pradesh Bhawan in the national capital in support of the AMU students, according to reports. Students from various universities, including Delhi University and JNU, protested in Delhi on Friday and raised slogans against the BJP and RSS, reported CNN-News18.
Aligarh Muslim University and Jamia students protesting outside U.P Bhawan in New Delhi against RSS and BJP over the Jinnah row, demand there should be no saffron terror in the country. #JinnahAMURow pic.twitter.com/nw8flkNH0d
— News18 (@CNNnews18) May 4, 2018
Internet services have been suspended in Aligarh district in the wake of unrest in AMU. “There will be no internet services from 2 pm Friday to 12 midnight Saturday,” district magistrate Chandra Bhushan Singh said. This has been done to prevent rumour mongering, he said. [caption id=“attachment_4456473” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Protesters sit outside the AMU campus. News18[/caption] It had come to the administration’s notice that some anti-social elements could vitiate communal harmony by spreading rumours through videos, using internet services, his order said. Tension prevailed in Aligarh and students continued with their sit-in at the university’s Baab-e-Syed gate, where they had clashed with the police on Wednesday. The students offered Friday prayers at the scene of the dharna, in which a large number of teachers and other members of the AMU fraternity participated. Wednesday’s clash took place when the students were demanding action against right-wing protesters who entered the campus and wanted the Pakistan founder’s portrait removed from the student union office, where it has been hanging for decades. The row started after local BJP MP Satish Gautam wrote to AMU raising objections to the portrait. The University said portraits of all life members of the student union hang there. Jinnah, a founder member of the University Court, had also been given this honour before Partition. AMU vice-chancellor Tariq Mansoor visited the Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College Hospital where three of the students injured in the police lathi-charge are being treated. The VC later visited the protesting students and assured them of his “solidarity”. AMU Teachers’ Association (AMUTA) has sent a memorandum to President Ram Nath Kovind asking him to “urgently institute” a high-level judicial probe into the incident. They said members of certain outfits entered the campus and disrupted the peaceful academic environment there. The teachers also plan a peace march up to the district collectorate. AMUTA secretary Najmul Islam told PTI that they have urged the president to treat the matter seriously as it involved a breach in the security of former vice-president Hamid Ansari. Ansari was supposed to be felicitated at the University the day the violence broke out. Islam said protesters who had entered the campus were reportedly carrying firearms. He said the police, instead of preventing the hooligans from entering the campus, “remained mute spectators”. With inputs from PTI [caption id=“attachment_4456529” align=“aligncenter” width=“825”]
 Cartoon by Manjul[/caption]