The controversy over a portrait of Muhammad Ali Jinnah refuses to die down as now a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) minister from Haryana has demanded that the name of the Aligarh Muslim University should be changed.

Referring to the portrait of Pakistan’s Quaid-e-Azam, Haryana Finance Minister Captain Abhimanyu said that AMU has a picture of the person “who broke the nation into pieces”, but does not have any portrait of Raja Mahendra Pratap Singh, claiming that the Jat king had “donated” the land for the university.

“Picture of the one who broke the nation into pieces hangs inside Aligarh Muslim University's campus, but no picture of Raja Mahendra Pratap Singh. I demand that AMU must be renamed as Raja Mahendra Pratap Vishwavidyalaya,” said Captain Abhimanyu on Sunday.

According to the Haryana minister, Raja Mahendra Pratap Singh’s contribution in the field of education cannot be forgotten. The remarks were made by Captain Abhimanyu while addressing a gathering at a ground-breaking ceremony of a Jat Dharamsala in Rewari.

Meanwhile, the Aligarh Muslim University Students Union (AMUSU) has written to President Ram Nath Kovind seeking his intervention into the controversy surrounding the portrait of Muhammad Ali Jinnah.

In their letter to Kovind, the students alleged that no satisfactory action has been taken by the Uttar Pradesh government yet. They also said that the Aligarh district administration was yet to act against those who trespassed into the campus and indulged in acts of violence on May 2.

"We’d again like to make it very clear that the students of Aligarh Muslim University are in no way defending Mohammad Ali Jinnah or his portrait," AMUSU president Maskoor Ahmad Usmani had said.

Students of the university have been agitating for nearly two weeks, demanding action against the right-wing protesters, who entered the campus and demanded the removal of Jinnah's portrait from the student union's office. The row started after local BJP MP Satish Gautam wrote to AMU, raising objections to the portrait.

(With agency inputs)