‘Jinnah portrait at AMU to be sent to Pak’: BJP MP

india

Updated: May 25, 2019 09:10 IST

After being elected as Aligarh MP for the second time in a row, BJP leader Satish Gautam said that his first priority was to send the portrait of Muhammad Ali Jinnah at Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) to Pakistan.

“The right place for Jinnah’s portrait is not at Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), but in Pakistan. There is no change in our stand and it will be sent by whatever means possible,” said Gautam while interacting with the media.

The BJP MP thanked his party organisation and voters for giving him a second term from Aligarh.

Gautam had been vocal on this issue often during his first term as MP from Aligarh. He raked up the issue even when he cast his vote on April 18.

The BJP MP had in the past also written a letter to AMU vice- chancellor Tariq Mansoor, seeking the status of the Jinnah portrait at AMU.

The issue had re-surfaced when the portrait came in the open during an exhibition organised at AMU in October, 2018 to mark Gandhi Jayanti.

Gautam had raised objection at that time too and the university administration removed the portrait from the exhibition and served a show-cause notice to the librarian for the ‘lapse’.

“We are also committed to reservation to SC/ST and OBC students at the AMU, an issue we had been raising time and again. The AMU has to give reservation to these students,” asserted Gautam.

A section of students had demanded construction of a temple on the AMU campus for Hindu students. Replying to a question in this regard, Gautam extended full support to Ajay Singh, the student leader at AMU for such issues.

Singh was suspended by the AMU administration after an incident of violence on the campus in February this year. Gautam also assured to help out the suspended student leader.

Gautam was sitting MP for BJP in Aligarh and got a ticket again for 2019 election. He won after defeating his nearest rival Ajeet Baliyan of the BSP.