AMU-Jinnah row: Jamia students protest, call for ban on Hindu Yuva Vahini

Students of Delhi’s Jamia Millia Islamia university staged a protest march on campus on Thursday evening against the Hindu Yuva Vahini and its hand in the recent ruckus at Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) as well as high-handedness of the Uttar Pradesh Police. Hundreds of students, including some from AMU, participated in the stir.

According to reports, violence had broken out at AMU on Wednesday, a day after BJP’s Aligarh MP Satish Gautam wrote to the AMU Vice-Chancellor seeking an explanation for a portrait of Muhammad Ali Jinnah that has been hanging at the university since 1938.

Right-wing activists and ABVP members reached the university gates, shouting objectionable slogans, and reportedly demanded that AMU remove the portrait. Students and teachers complained that the Hindu Yuva Vahini members were armed and manhandled security guards on the campus.

AMU students were later allegedly caned by the police while they were marching to file an FIR against the right-wing group. Many, including the union president, were injured.

A function meant to honour former Vice-President Hamid Ansari, by giving him lifetime membership of the AMU students’ union, was called off due to the protests.

Now, students from Jamia are protesting against the incident, calling the violence an act of terrorism and hoisting banners demanding justice for the students at the receiving end.

The campus echoed with voices crying “Inquilab zindabad” and slogans demanding that the Hindu Yuva Vahini be banned.

One Miran Haider addressed the body of students, gathered at the Jamia Central Canteen, and condemned the violence at AMU. “Aligarh Muslim University has always stood with Jamia,” Haidar said. “It is our turn to stand by them now.”

He then led the large body of students through the Polytechnic and Central Library to the Ansari Auditorium.

Some of the banners read “Jinnah toh bahaana hai, Sanghion ko campus mein aana hai” and “Azaad Tha Azaad Hai Azaad Rehega”, “#Save AMU”, “Saffron Terrorists, Hands Off AMU”.

“I made sure the word terrorist was loud and clear,” a student from the university’s mass communications programme said, showing her banner. “It is foolish to call them goons when what they are doing is clearly an act of terror.”

Kaavish Raza, a member of the AMU students’ union, addressed the protesting students. “What happened at AMU is shameful and tolerating it with silence will not be acceptable,” he said, while Haidar added that “attacks of such kind should always be condemned in every university, be it Jamia, DU or JNU.”

A former number of the AMU union, who was attending the protest, said “I came to Delhi after the incident” while another member said “the police system in Uttar Pradesh has failed us.”