Ansari confirms security breach on May 2 programme at AMU
New Delhi, May 12: Former Vice President M. Hamid Ansari on Saturday wrote a letter to Aligarh Muslim University Students Union (AMUSU) President Mashkoor Ahmed Usmani confirming that there was breach of security during May 2 programme.
"I have just received a letter from the former Vice President Hamid Ansari Sahab, in which he confirms the breach of his security on May 2," Usmani said at a press conference late evening in the Union Hall of the university campus.
On May 2, Ansari was scheduled to visit the AMU at the invitation of the AMUSU that was to confer its lifetime membership -- an honour also bestowed on Jinnah in 1938, which explains the presence of his portrait there -- on the former Vice President and a former Vice Chancellor of the university.
IANS has reported that Ansari had to cut short his two-day programme and returned to Delhi soon after the incident as the local administration expressed its inability to provide him security cover.
In the letter, Ansari has thanked AMUSU for conferring on him life membership and also mentioned disruption caused by intruders and anti-social elements.
On May 3, Ansari was to deliver a lecture on pluralism in the Kennedy Hall at the varsity and in the evening attend a dinner hosted by the AMUSU. His schedule had been conveyed to the Aligarh administration in advance by Ansari's office as per protocol.
Ansari reached the university on May 2 at the scheduled time, i.e. 1.00 p.m., and was lodged at the AMU guest house which is near the Baab-e-Syed Gate of the university.
A little later, a group of men, owing allegiance to the Hindu Yuva Vahini, an outfit founded and patronised by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, started creating a ruckus near the administrative block of the university by raising objectionable slogans. The AMU security confronted them and handed them over to the Civil Lines police.
As per the statement of the AMU Proctor's office to the police, the men returned barely after half an hour with more people -- around 25-30 men, some of them equipped with pistols, lathis and stones -- and shouting expletives and objectionable slogans against the AMU, tried to barge into the university through Baab-e-Syed Gate.
"The disruption, its precise timing, and the excuse manufactured for justifying it, raises question. The programme of the day, including an address by me in the Kennedy Auditorium, was publicly known," Ansari wrote in the letter.
"The authorities concerned had been intimated officially and were cognizant of the standard arrangements including security for such occasions. In view of it, the access of the intruders to close proximity of the University gest house where I was staying remains unexplained," the letter read.
Ansari also said that the peaceful protest by the students against this transgression was commendable, adding that they must ensure that it did not in any way interfere with their academic pursuits.
"Their request that action be taken against the intruders and disruptions, after a judicial inquiry, is justified," the letter said.
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India harbouring big and bold dreams in space sector: Shubhanshu Shukla
Kolkata (PTI): Air Force Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla, the first Indian astronaut to go to the International Space Station, on Wednesday said the country is harbouring “big and bold dreams”, foraying into human spaceflight after a hiatus of 41 years.
Shukla was the first Indian to visit the International Space Station as part of the Axiom-4 mission. He returned to India from the US on August 17, 2025, after the 18-day mission.
The space is a “great place to be”, marked by deep peace and an “amazing view” that becomes more captivating with time, he said, interacting with schoolchildren at an event organised by the Indian Centre for Space Physics here.
“The longer you stay, the more you enjoy it,” Shukla said, adding on a lighter note that he “actually kind of did not want to come back”.
Shukla said the hands-on experience in space was very different from what he had learnt during training.
He said the future of India’s space science was “very bright”, with the country harbouring “very big and bold dreams”.
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Shukla described his ISS flight, undertaken with support from the US, as a crucial “stepping stone” towards realising India’s ‘Vision Gaganyaan’.
“The experience gained is a national asset. It is already being used by internal committees and design teams to ensure ongoing missions are on the right track,” he said.
Shukla said the country’s space ambitions include the Gaganyaan human spaceflight programme, the Bharatiya Station (India’s own space station), and eventually a human landing on the Moon.
While the Moon mission is targeted for 2040, he said these projects are already in the pipeline, and the field will evolve at a “very rapid pace” over the next 10-20 years.
He told the students that though these targets are challenging, they are “achievable by people like you”, urging them to take ownership of India’s aspirations.
The sector will generate “a lot of employment opportunities” as India expands its human spaceflight capabilities, he noted.
Echoing the iconic words of India’s first astronaut Rakesh Sharma, Shukla said that from orbit, “India is still the best in the world”.
Shukla also asserted that the achievement was not his alone, but that of the entire country.
“The youth of India are extremely talented. They must stay focused, remain curious and work hard. It is their responsibility to help build a developed India by 2047,” he said.
Highlighting a shift from Sharma’s era, Shukla said India is now developing a full-fledged astronaut ecosystem.
With Gaganyaan and future missions, children in India will be able to not only dream of becoming astronauts, but also achieving it within the country, he said.
“Space missions help a village kid believe he can go to space someday. When you send one person to space, you lift million hopes. That is why such programmes must continue... The sky is not the limit,” Shukla said.
“Scientists must prepare for systems that will last 20-30 years, while ensuring they can integrate technologies that will emerge a decade from now,” he said.
Shukla added that he looked forward to more space missions, and was keen to undertake a space walk, which will require him to "train for another two years".
