BJP Legislator’s Grandson Served Notice For ‘Tiranga Yatra’ in AMU

New Delhi: Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), which has been at the centre of various controversies in recent months, is back in the news. This time round, a show-cause notice has been issued to three students following a “Tiranga Yatra” in the university allegedly without seeking permission.

Ahead of Republic Day, a “Tiranga Yatra” and a rally on bikes was taken out on Tuesday by a few students, led by an LLM student, Ajay Singh, the grandson of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA Dalveer Singh, following which the administration issued the show-cause notice.

As per the notice, seen by Newsclick, no prior permission was sought by the students for carrying out the rally. The notice also said that the rally also “disturbed” the teaching and learning atmosphere in the university.

The AMU administration has asked these students to give an explanation in 24 hours failing which disciplinary action would be taken against them.  

When asked about the show cause notice, AMU Proctor Mohammad Mohsin Khan told Newsclick, "We didn’t issue a notice regarding a ‘Tiranga Yatra.’ We issued a notice to students because classes were in full swing and rallies would've caused disturbance. They asked permission for rally and we denied. We issued show cause notice when they took out the rally without permission.” 

Khan further said, "Every year AMU itself celebrates Republic Day and a week-long programme is held where we organise prabhat pheri, mushaira, fruit distribution to the poor people etc. The students should join this instead of creating chaos in the campus on the name of bike rally”. He said Ajay Singh, who led the protest, belonged to a political family. “His grandfather is a BJP MLA that's why he wanted to take political mileage using university turf. The university has no problem with Tiranga Yatra but when the itself holds Republic Day functions, it does not make any sense for a bike rally inside the campus." 

Maskoor Ahmad Usmani, former AMUSU, president said: "Our tricolor is our pride, prestige and respect. I am against anyone who uses our "Tiranga" for politics”.

Usmani pointed out that it was becoming a “trend by Right wing-affiliated organisations in India to hold "Tiranga Yatras" without the permission of administration and playing petty politics.”

“If they wanted to pay tribute to martyrs, they could have been involved in the one-week university programme every year which pays tribute to martyrs on the eve of Independence Day and Republic Day,” he added.

However, Ajay Singh was quoted in the Times of India as saying that they had sought permission from the proctor’s office on January 19, but got no response, adding that they would complain to the Human Resource Development Ministry.

The ‘Tiranga Yatra’ Pattern  

Ever since the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has come to power, the pattern of Tiranga Yatra’s being held ahead of Republic Day has become a pattern, especially in minority inhabited areas, such as in Kasganj last year, which led to a communal flare-up leading to the death of one person.

A Tiranga Yatra was taken out in Ramgarh town of Jharkhand in support of the cow vigilantes who were awarded life sentence by a fast-track court for lynching of a 45-year-old Muslim man.

A similar Tiranga Rally was taken out in Kathua of Jammu and Kashmir in support of the accused of brutal gang-rape and murder of an eight-year-old local tribal girl. The rally was organised after the police filed a charge-sheet in the case. A group of right-leaning lawyers had also forcibly tried to block the prosecution team to file the charge-sheet in the court.

A common thread in all these Tiranga Yatras is that organisers have got support from BJP leaders or were associated with the Sangh Parivar.

https://www.newsclick.in/clashes-kanwar-pilgrims-series-incidents-communal-tension