Even before the controversy over Muhammad Ali Jinnah's portrait in Aligarh Muslim University could end, a fresh incident of removing the portrait of AMU's founder Sir Syed Ahmad Khan has come to the fore.
A portrait of Sir Syed that donned the wall of the state PWD guest house in Khair town along with pictures of Mahatma Gandhi, Dr Ambedkar and Lal Bahadur Shastri was found removed. Neither any official nor the security guard of the guest house have any knowledge about who removed the portrait of Sir Syed.
The portrait reportedly went missing on Wednesday when the security guard went home to have food.
Reportedly, in a recent meeting of local BJP leaders in Aligarh, questions were raised on the portraits of Sir Syed in various state-owned buildings. The meeting had also deliberated on having pictures of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Prime Minister Modi in all such buildings.
Meanwhile, after the violence over Jinnah's portrait at AMU instigated by Hindu Yuva Vahini, another portrait of his surfaced in city's DS college washroom on Saturday.
While cleaning the washroom, the workers spotted it and alerted the authorities, who immediately removed the portrait before it could erupt another chain of protests.
"Some people had come from outside and put up this portrait. This is an attempt to vitiate the atmosphere. We do not stand for this and removed the portrait immediately after we saw it," said Dr Hem Prakash, Principal of DS College.
Jammat e Islami Hind (JIH) questioned the rationale behind the demand of some right-wing activists for removing a portrait of Pakistan's founder Muhammad Ali Jinnah from the Aligarh Muslim University.
"What is the rationale behind such a demand after it has been there in public view for the past 80 years? Even if someone has such a demand, they can move courts for the same... Why such a row over it?" asked JIH president Maulana Syed Jalaluddin Umari.
Describing it as a small issue that has been blown out of proportion, Umari said it has long been the practise in AMU to display portraits of its lifetime members of the students' union in the campus.
Jinnah's picture has been in the campus since 1938. In all these years, no one had raised any objections or put forward any demand for its removal, he said.
Umari claimed that even some senior BJP leaders had not disputed Jinnah's role in the freedom struggle.
He said it was a matter can be resolved through talks with the students' union.
