By Anuja Jaiswal / The Times Of India
AGRA: “Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) should stop taking central grants if it wants to continue using the word ‘Muslim’ in its name,” Vishwa Hindu Parishad’s (VHP’s) joint general secretary Dr Surendra Jain said on Friday.
“The university uses the land donated by freedom fighter Raja Mahendra Pratap Singh and takes central grants for running itself. However, its students continue to shout anti-national slogans on campus. This can’t be tolerated,” he said while interacting with media persons after attending an event at Aligarh’s Heeralal Barah Saini Inter College, Achaltal.
Meanwhile, university spokesperson Shafey Kidwai said that the varsity was named by an act of Parliament. “We neither assigned the name nor can we change it,” he said.
Incidentally in 2018, a University Grants Commission audit panel had suggested dropping the word “Muslim” from the university’s name as well.
In response to its suggestion, the then AMU registrar Javaid Akhtar, in a letter, said that the move “would deprive the university of its unique historical character”.
Jain said that the future of this country will be “decided by the Hindu community”. “The community will also rename the district’s name to ‘Harigarh’. The name ‘Aligarh’ was given by some invaders. People from the Muslim community in Aligarh should stop living in the past as this would be to their benefit. The nation’s identity is derived from Ram and Hari, not from Muslim attackers,” he said.
This article first appeared on timesofindia.indiatimes.com