New Delhi: Amid a row over Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s portrait – which has been hanging in the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) campus since 1938 – Haryana finance minister Captain Abhimanyu has demanded that the university be renamed after Mahendra Pratap Singh, who “donated land for the university for education of Hindus as well as Muslims”
According to an Indian Express report, addressing a gathering at the foundation-laying ceremony of Jat Dharamshala in Haryana’s Rewari on Sunday, Abhimanyu claimed that the Jat king’s “contribution in the field of education cannot be forgotten.”
Mahendra Pratap Singh. Credit: Wikimedia Commons
Slamming Pakistan’s founder, the minister was further quoted by The Hindu as saying that while AMU has a portrait of Jinnah “who divided this country” and was “responsible for destroying the integrity of the nation,” there is no image of Mahendra Pratap, who gave land to the university “without any hesitation and with an objective of education to all, irrespective of religion.”
“What can be more sad than the fact that no image of Raja Mahendra Pratap Singh has been displayed in the university.This is the need of the hour – that the university be renamed after him. And this is possible only if a united demand is made,” the Haryana minister said.
Claiming that he does not “see anybody from the angle of caste and religion,” he told the Indian Express that the Jat king had “worked for the unity and integrity of the country”.
The minister added that Mahendra Pratap had “fought for independence of ‘Akhand Bharat’ and worked for ‘Manav Dharam’. It will be most befitting to name the university after such a great personality of modern India.”
Abhimanyu’s demand follows a similar one by the Jat king’s grandson Garundhwaj Singh, who apart from demanding the renaming of the university after Mahendra Pratap, had also asked that his portrait be hanged in AMU since he had “donated the land to the institution.”
Mahendra Pratap had studied at Aligarh’s Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental College, founded by Sir Syed Ahmad Khan, which later became AMU.
Earlier this month, Aligarh’s BJP MP Satish Gautam asked AMU to explain why it displays a portrait of Jinnah. In a letter written to vice-chancellor Tariq Mansoor, Gautam objected to hanging the picture of the founder of Pakistan on the walls of the AMU students’ union office.
AMU spokesperson Shafey Kidwai defended the portrait, that has apparently been hanging there for decades, saying that Jinnah was a founder member of the University Court and granted life membership of the students’ union.
Traditionally, photographs of all life members are placed on the walls of the student union, he told PTI.
(With agency inputs)