Modi Praises AMU, BJP Leaders Malign It: Time to Shut Down Hate?

Yeh Jo India Hai Na

Speaking at the 100th anniversary of the Aligarh Muslim University, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said – “Those educated at AMU represent the diverse culture of India,” that AMU is a “mini-India.”
But other Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders don’t think so...

• In 2019, BJP Lok Sabha MP from Aligarh Satish Gautam attacked AMU for having Jinnah’s portrait on its campus, ignoring the context that Jinnah was one of AMU’s founders.
• In 2015, Sunil Singh, the UP head of the Hindu Yuva Vahini, the Hindutva group founded by Yogi Adityanath, called AMU a "nursery of terror".
• Members of the Hindu Yuva Vahini even vandalised the AMU campus in 2018.
• In 2016, former Aligarh mayor and BJP leader Shakuntala Bharti made false allegations of beef being served in an AMU hostel.
• In February 2019, 14 AMU students were booked for sedition after a complaint filed by local BJP leader Mukesh Lodi, charges the police later quietly dropped.
• In 2018, both Yogi Adityanath and Central Social Justice Minister Thawar Chand Gehlot wrongly claimed that AMU was not a minority institution.
• BJP MP RS Katheria, Chairman of the National Commission for Scheduled Castes, while demanding clarity on the issue from AMU, said – “This is not Pakistan, AMU must follow rules” – betraying his bigotry.

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VO: Rohit Khanna