RJD leader and former deputy chief minister of Bihar, Tejashwi Yadav, has thrown his weight behind the protesting students of Aligarh Muslim University calling the controversy over Md Ali Jinnah’s portrait ‘simply a cover’ for Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.
Taking to Twitter, Tejashwi wrote, “#JinnahPortrait controversy is simply a cover for Modiji & Yogiji to hide the dismal failure of their regime. Dear AMU! We are with you in solidarity to protect the ideals of secularism & socialism. Jai Hind.”
#JinnahPortrait controversy is simply a cover for Modiji & Yogiji to hide the dismal failure of their regime.
Dear AMU! We are with you in solidarity to protect the ideals of secularism & socialism. Jai Hind
— Tejashwi Yadav (@yadavtejashwi) May 6, 2018
Thousands of students from AMU have been protesting against the Hindutva goons’ attempts to enter the campus of the prestigious institution and police crackdown against them leaving many seriously injured.
The peaceful protests inside the campus by the AMU students may not have enthused the media at large to provide adequate coverage on their platforms, but the unprecedented developments have not gone unnoticed on social media platforms, where thousands of messages of solidarity were posted on Sunday evening under tha hashtag #IStandWithAMU. Filmmaker Anubhav Sinha wrote, “Brethren, I’m so very proud of you all. Just make sure that you don’t become a mob even at your weakest moment. You should know you’re being heard LOUD AND CLEAR!!! #IStandWithAMU”
Brethren, I’m so very proud of you all. Just make sure that you don’t become a mob even at your weakest moment. You should know you’re being heard LOUD AND CLEAR!!! #IStandWithAMU pic.twitter.com/8AOlJNhlET
— Anubhav Sinha (@anubhavsinha) May 6, 2018
Meanwhile a video message of Former Vice Chancellor Lt Gen (Retd) Zameeruddin Shah has gone viral. In the video, Gen Shah is seen mincing no words in his support for the students.
He said, “The students of AMU are not anti-national, they do not harbour any pro-Pakistan feelings as projected by the media. Some incidents of yelling and slogan-shouting were slogans for freedom from oppression.” Later he explained why he had chosen to go public in his support for the AMU students. Quoting Martin Luther King, Gen Shah told PTI that “in the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies but the silence of our friends.”
Armed Hindutva goons, allegedly members of Hindu Yuva Vahini had entered the campus of AMU on 2 May. The local police, which reports to the state’s BJP government, had come under considerable condemnation for its alleged partisan role. The video of cops attacking AMU students mercilessly with canes had gone viral. One of the demands raised by the protesting AMU students now is that the guilty cops must be punished.