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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Centre spent Rs 76.13 lakh on print media ads for RSS centenary, reveals RTI
New Delhi: The Union Ministry of Culture allegedly spent Rs 76.13 lakh on print advertisements marking the 100-year celebrations of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), according to a Right to Information (RTI) reply.
The information was sought by RTI activist Ajay Basudev Bose, who filed an application seeking details on expenditure incurred by the ministry for advertisements commemorating the RSS centenary.
Bose shared a picture of the reply from the ministry on his official ‘X’ handle.
“It is informed that an amount of Rs 76,13,129 has been spent on advertisement given in various print media by the Ministry of Culture on the occasion of the completion of 100 years of RSS,” the government’s reply stated.
RTI reply shows Min of Culture Govt of India spent a Whopping Rs 76L,13K,129 on Advertisement in Print Media on occasion of 100 yrs of #RSS
— AJAY Basudev Bose (@AjayBos93388306) April 16, 2026
When Everyone knows RSS is Not Registered & Does not Pay any Tax is it justified to spend Tax Payers Money on such Private event??@RSSorg… pic.twitter.com/dW4IUtdNCg
Bose questioned the expenditure in the post X, “when Everyone knows RSS is Not Registered & Does not Pay any Tax is it justified to spend Tax Payers Money on such Private event??”
Reacting to the development, Karnataka’s IT-BT and Panchayat Raj Minister Priyank Kharge also criticised the spending.
In a post on X, he asked why public money was being used for what he described as a “private ideological project.”
"Modi Sarkar spent Rs 76,13,129 of public money on newspaper advertisements to celebrate 100 years of the RSS. Why is Government spending taxpayers money on an unregistered, non-tax-paying organisation to celebrate their centenary?," he added.
Why is public money being used to serve a private ideological project?
— Priyank Kharge / ಪ್ರಿಯಾಂಕ್ ಖರ್ಗೆ (@PriyankKharge) April 16, 2026
Modi Sarkar spent ₹76,13,129 of public money on newspaper advertisements to celebrate 100 years of the RSS.
Why is Government spending taxpayers money on an unregistered, non-tax-paying organisation to… pic.twitter.com/EoZ6Pim3IM
According to reports, the RSS describes itself as a volunteer-based organisation and has stated that it functions as a body of individuals rather than a registered entity.
Founded by Keshav Baliram Hedgewar in 1925, the organisation is marking its centenary year beginning from Vijaydashami in 2025, with the milestone observed on October 2.
