Jinnah portrait a non-issue, says AMU VC
New Delhi, May 9: Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) Vice Chancellor Tariq Mansoor on Wednesday described as "a non-issue" the Jinnah portrait in the AMU, saying it also existed in the Bombay High Court and Sabarmati Ashram.
"No one was worried about the portrait until now. I think it is a non-issue. The student agitation had no relation to the Jinnah portrait row, they were protesting against the people who came to the AMU to disturb peace on May 2," he told the media.
Mansoor spoke after meeting Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh over engaging youths in paramilitary forces.
"I met Rajnath Singh over recruitment of students in central forces like the CRPF and CISF. It was a pre-scheduled meeting. It had no relation to the Jinnah portrait row," he said.
Mansoor said the Minister assured him he would send officers from paramilitary forces to interact with the AMU students and motivate them to join central forces.
In his over half hour meeting, informed sources said, Mansoor also briefed Rajnath Singh about the current situation in the AMU.
On the demand to remove a portrait of Mohammad Ali Jinnah from an AMU hall, Mansoor said the portrait had been in the university since 1938 and it was put up at many places including the Bombay High Court and Sabarmati Ashram.
"We have already demanded a judicial inquiry into the issue."
On Tuesday, the VC urged the students protesting over the Jinnah portrait row to not let their studies suffer due to the unrest in the varsity.
Through a letter, he appealed to the students "not to fall into the trap of certain forces which are bent upon destroying the image of our alma mater and are playing with your bright future.
"Under no circumstances should you let your studies suffer, especially when your exams are just round the corner."
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BJP writes to EC about 'non-deployment' of central forces to avert clash
Kolkata (PTI): The BJP on Sunday wrote to the Election Commission alleging that its workers were not given security and came under attack while travelling to attend Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s rally at Brigade Parade Ground on March 14 and sought action over the alleged non-deployment of central forces by police.
In a letter to the poll panel, BJP leader Shishir Bajoria claimed that buses carrying party workers to the rally were targeted with bricks in the Girish Park area of north Kolkata, leaving several activists injured, some of whom were hospitalised.
Trouble broke out in the area when BJP activists objected to the putting up of flexes which read 'Boycott BJP', before the house of state minister Shashi Panja and tore down the flexes. Heavy brick batting followed as both sides regrouped along Central Avenue, and the window panes on the ground-floor room of Panja's residence were damaged in stone pelting.
The minister claimed she and several of her party members were injured in the brickbatting by rally-bound BJP supporters.
In the letter, the BJP alleged that despite a substantial deployment of Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) ahead of the elections, the forces were not present at the site of the disturbance to ensure the safety of its workers and leaders.
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Putting the onus on TMC for the violence, the letter said, "A large number of buses bringing BJP 'karyakartas' to attend the rally of Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Brigade Parade Ground were subjected to large-scale brick-batting and violence, resulting in several BJP leaders sustaining injuries, many of whom had to be hospitalised."
Attaching purported photos and videos of the clash to back up their claims of TMC instigation, the letter said: "What was particularly of grave concern was that despite a big deployment of CAPF well before the polls, their complete absence at the spot during the disturbance, or in any part of the city of Kolkata."
"We would like to put on record that the presence of Kolkata Police at the spot of disturbance establishes the fact that they had an advance intelligence report of possible violence and yet kept the CAPF out," the BJP leader said in the letter to the CEC Gyanesh Kumar, and Chief Electoral Officer, West Bengal, Manoj Kumar Agarwal.
"Given the seriousness of the incident and the injuries sustained by several of our karyakarta, it raises concerns among citizens regarding the effective deployment of CAPF for preventing violence, and ensuring a free and fair electoral environment," the letter said.
"We request your good office to kindly take the strongest possible action against those who were responsible for this non-deployment of CAPF, resulting in this incident and ensure that in future deployment is carried out in a manner that truly serves its intended purpose of area domination, confidence building, and timely intervention wherever law and order situations arises from now till the elections are over," the letter said.
The BJP also reminded the commission that a party delegation had earlier met the full bench of the poll body on March 9 and raised concerns that CAPF personnel were being deployed for route marches in peaceful areas and highways instead of in locations requiring voter confidence-building measures.
At least eight persons, including a police officer, were injured in brickbatting, which broke out half an hour before the arrival of the Prime Minister at the Brigade Rally. The clash continued for about an hour as both sides fought a pitched battle on the road and nearby by-lanes before reinforcements brought the situation under control.
