Aligarh Muslim University Vice-Chancellor Tariq Mansoor met Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Wednesday to discuss issues concerning the institution engulfed in a controversy over a portrait of Muhammad Ali Jinnah on its premises.
The vice-chancellor briefed the home minister about the situation on the campus, an official privy to the meeting said.
According to a report in The Indian Express, the vice-chancellor called the row over Jinnah portrait a non-issue. “Jinnah’s portrait has been here since 1938. Jinnah’s portrait is at many places including Bombay HC and Sabarmati Ashram. No one was worried about the portraits until now, I think it is a non-issue,” said Mansoor.
“Students agitation had no relation to Jinnah portrait row, they were protesting against people who came to AMU to disturb peace on May 2. Spoken to chief secretary for a judicial inquiry into the incident,” he added.
BJP MP Satish Gautam had written a letter to Mansoor objecting to a portrait of the founder of Pakistan on the walls of the AMU student union office, triggering a row that led to two youths being arrested in connection with incidents of violence and exams being postponed.
(With agency inputs)