Even as the controversy surrounding the status of a portrait of Mohammed Ali Jinnah at Aligarh Muslim University persists, Haryana Finance Minister Captain Abhimanyu wants the varsity to be renamed after Raja Mahendra Pratap, also known as 'Jat King.'
"The picture of the one who broke the nation into pieces hangs inside Aligarh Muslim University's campus, but there is no picture of Raja Mahendra Pratap Singh. I demand that the AMU must be renamed as Raja Mahendra Pratap Vishwavidyalaya," he said while addressing a gathering in Rewari on Sunday.
Incidentally, Mahendra Pratap Singh was a student of AMU, in its earlier avatar as Mohammedan Anglo-Oriental College.
Earlier this month, a number of groups protested against the portrait of Pakistan's founder being hung at the AMU student union's office.
The matter grabbed headlines first after Aligarh MP Satish Gautam of the BJP questioned the portrait's presence in the office.
Soon after, AMU Vice-Chancellor Professor Tariq Mansoor dubbed the Jinnah portrait controversy as a 'non-issue' and underscored that latter's portrait is also present at the Bombay High Court and the Sabarmati Ashram in Gujarat.
Talking to reporters, Mansoor said, "Jinnah's portrait has been here since 1938. Jinnah's portrait is at many places including Bombay HC and Sabarmati Ashram and Nehru Museum too. No one was worried about the portraits until now; I think it is a non-issue."
Mansoor also asserted that the agitation by students in the university had no connection with the Jinnah portrait row.
"(The) students' agitation had no relation to Jinnah portrait row; they were protesting against people who came to AMU to disturb the peace on May 2. I have spoken to chief secretary for a judicial inquiry into the incident," he said, while reacting to the ruckus, due to which an event of former vice-president Hamid Ansari was cancelled.