By A Correspondent / NEW DELHI
Close on the heel of fanatic miscreants creating trouble at Aligarh Muslim University, AMU, a group of vandals allegedly raised ‘provocative’ slogans regarding Pakistan founder Mohammad Ali Jinnah at Jamia Millia Islamia Tuesday, leading to a scuffle at the campus gates.
According to reports around 25 people marched to protest the “discrimination against Hindu students”, and the “presence of Jinnah lovers” in the campus. The protesters reached the Jamia campus around 5.30 pm, when semester exams and entrance tests were still underway.
“They were raising slogans like ‘Jinnah premi desh chhoro’ (Jinnah lovers leave the country), and ‘Hinduon ka apmaan nahi sahega Hindustan’ (Hindustan won’t tolerate insult against Hindus),” said a student of Jamia.
“Some of the students got angry at the allegations that the people at Jamia disrespect the Hindu students. This led to an argument and a scuffle took place.”
In a Facebook post, Rahul Tiwari, an activist of RSS, claimed that he was leading the protest near the university and said that those who want to glorify Jinnah and suppress the voice of Hindu students in Jamia Millia Islamia will be beaten up.
His Facebook post reads: “Jin bhi bandhuon ko Jinnah ka samarthan karna hai evam Jamia ke Hindu vidyarthiyon ko dhamkana hai, aaj shaam 6 baje Jullena Evergreen Sweets aaye, unki sutayi ka poora bandobast rakha gaya hai” (Anyone supporting Jinnah and threatening Hindu students in Jamia, come to Jullena Evergreen Sweets, arrangements are in place to beat them).
Tiwari claimed that he obtained a PG degree from the university. Speaking to The Indian Express, he confirmed that the protest was called by him and also defended his Facebook post. He said that the part about beating up students was written ‘sarcastically’ in his post.
The daily said that slogans were raised during a march from Sarai Julena to the university’s gate number 7. By late night, the university became a scene of protests with students demanding that the police identify the protestors and arrest them. According to Media Coordinator Saima Saeed, the protesting men had not entered the university campus and that they marched only on the road outside the university gate.
Meanwhile, the ABVP, the student wing of RSS, has condemned the raising of such slogans. Asif Artab, ABVP Jamia unit secretary said that such ‘communal slogans should not have been raised.
A major controversy is currently unfolding over the display of Jinnah’s portrait inside the students’ union hall in the Aligarh Muslim University. Clashes between the AMU students and activists of right-wing groups were reported last week with administration deploying heavy police personnel and companies of RAF to check the law and order situation. The AMU on its part has said that Jinnah’s image was installed in 1938 when he was honoured with a lifetime membership of the students’ union and thus no controversy should be seen in this.
The Jamia administration came out with a statement, asking to maintain the campus peace so that exams can take place with ease. “Since the incident took place outside the gates of the campus, we can’t do anything on this,” it said.