5/4/2018 A 3rd Generation AMU Alumna Mourns Attack on Jinnah & Secularism

A 3rd Generation AMU Alumna Mourns

Attack on Jinnah & Secularism
The Quint 3 May 2018

In 1976, when the Emergency rule was at its peak, I remember going to
the Aligarh Muslim University’s (AMU) Students Union Hall to hear
Kuldeep Nayyar speak out against it. We were young and idealistic and
had visions for our university, our nation and ourselves, and listened to
him with rapt attention.

I don’t think any of us noticed any of the portraits hanging

there. They are portraits of people who were given lifetime
membership of the students’ union from its inception. This
has been a tradition at AMU. The first to receive this
membership was Mahatma Gandhi in 1920.

Others who have received it since are Dr BR Ambedkar, Dr Rajendra

Prasad, KM Munshi, Maulana Azad, Sir CV Raman, Jayaprakash
Narayan and Mother Teresa.

The AMU Students Union had invited Hamid Ansari, who is a former
Vice President of India and an alumnus of AMU, to confer the same
honour on him on 2 May 2018.

Also Read: Jinnah Portrait Row: Violence Breaks At AMU, 28 Students

Injured

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5/4/2018 A 3rd Generation AMU Alumna Mourns Attack on Jinnah & Secularism

AMU’s Secular History

The local BJP MP, Satish Gautam, wrote a letter to the AMU Vice
Chancellor on 30 April, seeking the removal of the Jinnah portrait. The
Hindu Yuva Vahini , founded by Yogi Adityanath, had given a 48-hour
notice for the same.

Now, AMU has a very secular history and its first graduate
was Ishwari Prasad, a Hindu. In fact, AMU’s first chancellor
was a woman, Begum Shah Jahan of Bhopal. Its founder
Syed Ahmad Khan, collected a large number of sculptures
which are proudly and prominently displayed in the Central
University Museum.

It has a history of service to the nation, so to demonise AMU and its

students and to call them anti-nationals and gaddar (traitors) is an insult
to every student, past and present, of the esteemed institution.

Mohammad Sajjad, a professor in AMU, feels this is being done to stoke

passions as the Kairana by-election is round the corner.

"AMU spokesman Shafey Kidwai on Tuesday defended the portrait,

which has apparently been hanging there for decades, saying that
Jinnah was a founder member of the university court and granted life
membership to the student union. Traditionally, photographs of all life
members are placed on the walls of the student union." - Mohammad
Sajjad, Professor, AMU to PTI

On Wednesday, as a storm raged outside, a storm raged in my head too

as I started receiving photos of injured AMU students. All kinds of
reports were being given about what happened and I was extremely
upset at the visuals of bleeding and injured students. My initial
response, on Twitter, was to demand safety of the students.

Rana Safvi ‫ رﻋﻧﺎ‬राना

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5/4/2018 A 3rd Generation AMU Alumna Mourns Attack on Jinnah & Secularism

@iamrana

This is what happened in AMU today.

Please remove the photo of Jinnah which has been hanging
in the Students union hall since 1939. If that is the reason for
this attack
We need safety of students.
8:02 PM - May 2, 2018
114 439 565

Also Read: Breaking Norms & Making History, the Girls of Aligarh
Muslim Univ

Reactions from AMU Students & Alumni

Soon, AMU alumni and present students started to respond on the

same thread:

Rana Safvi ‫ رﻋﻧﺎ‬राना @iamrana 2 May

This is what happened in AMU today.
Please remove the photo of Jinnah which has been hanging
in the Students union hall since 1939. If that is the reason for
this attack
We need safety of students. pic.twitter.com/mWSaGVT7uJ

Samar Halarnkar
@samar11

it gets worse, day after day. the empowerment of goons

8:11 PM - May 2, 2018

5 50 99

Rana Safvi ‫ رﻋﻧﺎ‬राना @iamrana 2 May

This is what happened in AMU today.
Please remove the photo of Jinnah which has been hanging
in the Students union hall since 1939. If that is the reason for
this attack
We need safety of students. pic.twitter.com/mWSaGVT7uJ

Sanjay
@MissionYeti

Ma'am I can understand your pain but is removing the

photo/statue a solution? You know tomorrow these Saffron
terrorists will ask people to remove Mohammed and Ali from
their name. Viable?
8:28 PM - May 2, 2018
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5/4/2018 A 3rd Generation AMU Alumna Mourns Attack on Jinnah & Secularism

2 7 28

Rana Safvi ‫ رﻋﻧﺎ‬राना @iamrana 2 May

This is what happened in AMU today.
Please remove the photo of Jinnah which has been hanging
in the Students union hall since 1939. If that is the reason for
this attack
We need safety of students. pic.twitter.com/mWSaGVT7uJ

Arun Arora #RYP

@Arun2981

It’s all about kairana bypoll ! Polarisation! And you know who
does that !!
11:34 PM - May 2, 2018

2 15

Rana Safvi ‫ رﻋﻧﺎ‬राना @iamrana 2 May

This is what happened in AMU today.
Please remove the photo of Jinnah which has been hanging
in the Students union hall since 1939. If that is the reason for
this attack
We need safety of students. pic.twitter.com/mWSaGVT7uJ

Kailash Chatterjee
@kailash_c27

Can’t support the violence.. but isn’t putting up Jinnah’s

portrait in India asking for trouble?
11:34 PM - May 2, 2018

1 2

Here, I am not even going into the abuse I was subjected to. Tarique
Anwer who graduated from AMU in 2004 said:

"AMU as an institution is almost 150 years old. The university is the

product of a movement led by reformist Sir Syed Ahmed Khan. The
university has long been in the eye of sanghs who want to drive a
communal agenda by targeting AMU’s secular nature. Before Jinnah,
Mahatma Gandhi was awarded a lifetime membership by AMU. This is
not about Jinnah’s picture being there; they are just using it as a tool to
drive hatred."

Irfanullah Farooqi, a professor at AMU, said:

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5/4/2018 A 3rd Generation AMU Alumna Mourns Attack on Jinnah & Secularism

"The arrival of this kind of goon-ism marks the end of any kind of
conversation. We are witnessing a society where an earnest exchange
of words/ideas is completely outdone by an exceedingly aggressive
one-dimensional understanding of history, culture and identity. Jinnah,
just like Gandhi, Nehru and many others, was no ordinary figure. To limit
him to Partition is to demonstrate utmost ignorance vis-à-vis modern
India. This flattening of personalities needs to be questioned in every
possible way. There is more to Jinnah than 1947’s Partition, just as
there is more to Nehru than simply being a signatory to that
agreement."Remains of the Day

There was a lot of confusion with people saying that the Hindu Yuva
Vahini was burning an effigy of Jinnah, and students objected to it, so I
spoke to Sharjeel Usmani, an undergraduate student at AMU, who was
witness to the protests. Despite being injured, he managed to type it all
out for me so that there could be clarity.

"The union had invited Hamid Ansari to honour him with the students’
union’s lifetime membership award. He reached AMU around 1:50 pm
and stayed at the guest house, which is near AMU’s main entrance. His
lecture was scheduled to be held at the Kennedy Hall at 4 pm. At
around 2:30 pm, a few Hindu Yuva Vahini activists came in, chanting
slogans such as ‘AMU ke gaddaro ko, goli maaro saalo ko’. "

“They had weapons in their hands, and they reached the entrance of the
guesthouse where Hamid Ansari was staying and started firing in the air,
while raising other vulgar slogans against AMU and Muslims. All through
this, a policeman was with them and he stayed mum while they were
doing all this. After hearing gunshots, the students and several
members of the students’ union ran towards them, getting hold of six of
them who were still armed,” he added.

Further he went on to say, “Meanwhile, Hamid Ansari’s own security

also came into action. We called the police and handed over these six
people to the police. The police released those six men without even
questioning them. They didn’t even take them to the police station.
Later, the police denied lodging an FIR. The students sat at AMU’s main
entrance in protest, demanding the arrest of those six men and an FIR
to be lodged. The police refused to comply. The RAF was called in,
following which students were lathi-charged and tear gas shells were
used on them.”

Hamid Ansari himself refused to say anything on the matter, calling it a

“nonsense issue”. The General Body Meeting of the Students’ Union,
AMU, has decided to file a petition against the police and district

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administration in the Allahabad High Court. The AMU teachers’

association has released an appeal to students:

“We appeal to the students to maintain calm at this hour of

crisis and defeat the ulterior motive of the perpetrators.
Have trust in us. The culprits will be caught and punished
as per law of the land.”

As a third generation AMU alumni, I can only pray that the law of the
land prevails; that the guilty are punished and students are allowed to
study and take their exams which are just around the corner.

(Rana Safvi is the founder and moderator of the popular #shair platform
on Twitter, which is credited for reviving popular interest in Urdu poetry.
She tweets @iamrana. This is an opinion piece and the views
expressed are the author’s own. The Quint neither endorses nor is
responsible for them.)

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