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.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
What was the need to disrespect 82-year-old leader: Priyanka slams PM
New Delhi (PTI): Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Friday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of disrespecting Mallikarjun Kharge by not replying to the Congress president's letter himself, and said it is unfortunate that leaders in the highest positions have rejected great traditions of democracy.
The Congress general secretary said today's politics is full of poison and the prime minister should have set a different example, keeping the dignity of his post in mind.
On Tuesday, Kharge had written a letter to the prime minister and raised the issue of "extremely objectionable" and violent statements by the ruling alliance members targeting Rahul Gandhi, urging him to discipline his leaders.
In response to Kharge's letter to Modi, BJP chief J P Nadda wrote to the Congress president and cited his party's own litany of complaints against the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha and other Congress members for their choice of words against the prime minister.
In a post in Hindi on X, Priyanka Gandhi said that in view of the unrestrained and violent statements of some BJP leaders and ministers, Congress president and Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Kharge wrote a letter to the PM, concerned about the safety of the life of Rahul Gandhi.
"If the Prime Minister had faith in democratic values, balanced dialogue and respect for elders, he would have himself replied to this letter.
Instead, he got a low-level and aggressive reply written by Nadda ji and sent it," she said.
What was the need to disrespect an 82-year-old senior public leader, Priyanka Gandhi asked.
"The tradition and culture of democracy is to ask questions and have a dialogue. Even in religion, no one is above values such as dignity and etiquette," she said.
"Today's politics is full of poison, the Prime Minister should have set a different example, keeping the dignity of his post in mind," Priyanka Gandhi said.
If the PM had respectfully replied to the letter of a senior politician, his image and dignity would have increased in the eyes of the public, she said.
"It is unfortunate that our leaders in the highest positions in the government have rejected these great traditions," Priyanka Gandhi said.
The Congress on Thursday had said Prime Minister Modi must rise above "petty politics" and condemn the actions of the ruling alliance leaders, who targeted Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi.
The opposition party had asserted the whole world is watching how the ruling BJP is "putting the life of the Leader of the Opposition in danger".
The assertion came in a letter by AICC general secretary in-charge Jairam Ramesh to Nadda in response to the BJP chief's letter to Kharge earlier.
The opposition party has slammed as "intemperate" and "juvenile" Nadda's reply to Kharge on his letter to Prime Minister Modi flagging "threats" aimed at Gandhi.
