Tension continued to prevail on the campus of Aligarh Muslim University on Friday with students deciding to boycott classes for the next five days to protest violence two days ago over demands to remove a portrait of Mohammed Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan. The tension continues even as senior figures in the BJP government in the state have called for the portrait's removal.
On Wednesday, agitating students clashed with police deployed at the campus and pelted stones at journalists who had gone there for coverage.
Student leaders have complained against BJP MP Satish Gautam and leaders of the VHP and Hindu Jagran Manch. The complaint in this connection was given to the additional district magistrate (city) and superintendent of police (city).
The AMU students have announced that their dharna would continue until the arrest of people who had come to the campus over the Jinnah portrait issue.
The DM, Aligarh, ordered a magisterial inquiry into the incident.
Meanwhile, AMU staff and teachers too have extended support to the ongoing movement of the students. The staff and teachers decided to boycott the classes for the coming five days.
Former minister Ali Ashraf Fathmi and former MLA Haji Jameerullah too participated in a protest by students on Thursday.
The students of AMU have warned that if their demands are not met, then they would resort to a countrywide agitation by joining hands with students from other universities.
There is a possibility that these student leaders could move the Supreme Court soon.
Meanwhile, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya have backed demands for removal of the portrait of Jinnah from the campus, which has made this knotty issue further complicated. Adityanath, who has been campaigning in the Karnataka elections, said to a TV channel on Thursday that Jinnah's achievements could not be celebrated as he had divided the country.
Maurya asked why was Jinnah being 'glorified' when he was an enemy of India and was responsible for partition of the country.
The VHP has seemingly waded into the ongoing row by alleging that the portrait of Jinnah was installed at AMU to placate former vice president Hamid Ansari.