In the backdrop of a controversy generated around the portrait of founder of Pakistan MA Jinnah, displayed in Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), Union Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi on Wednesday sought to say that Jinnah is not a role model for Indian Muslims and expressed confidence that the “patriotic” University administration and the students there would resolve the row o with a “sensitive approach”.
In the meantime, media reports suggested that the portrait went missing prompting the AMU authorities to deny it. They said the portrait has been removed temporarily for cleaning. Protests by students against police action against them too erupted.
Minority Affairs Minister Naqvi said things have “changed” in India after 1938, when Jinnah was accorded life membership of the AMU students’ union. “Jinnah is neither an icon of India nor the ideal (role model) of Indian Muslims. The AMU administration and students there are patriotic and there is no question of raising questions over their patriotism,” Naqvi said.
“I am very much confident that the issue will be resolved with a sensitive approach,” he added. The minister was also averse to the controversy escalating any further.
BJP MP from Aligarh, Satish Gautam, had on Tuesday asked the AMU to explain why it displays a portrait of Jinnah.
In a letter written to AMU Vice Chancellor Tariq Mansoor, Gautam objected to the Pakistan founder’s picture on the walls of the AMU students union office.
AMU spokesman Shafey Kidwai had defended the portrait, apparently hanging there for decades, saying that Jinnah was a founder member of the University Court and granted life membership of the students union.
But curiously, one of the UP State Ministers Swami Prasad Maurya have described Jinnah as a “ Mahapurush” after Gautam made his comments on Jinnah’s portrait.