Noida: The Bajrang Dal on Thursday held a protest against Aligarh Muslim University's vice chancellor for allowing a portrait of Pakistan's founding father Muhammed Ali Jinnah in the university premises. The protests were held in Shamli city, which is a part of the poll-bound Kairana Lok Sabha seat.
"Muhammed Ali Jinnah, who divided Mother India into pieces, is being hailed as a hero in Aligarh Muslim University and we cannot tolerate it. The portrait must be taken down immediately and it is not being done only because of the AMU VC's stubbornness. On Thursday, we marched through the streets of Shamli and burnt an effigy representing the AMU VC," said Vivek Premi, the West UP president of Bajrang Dal's student wing.
The polls for the seat will be held on May 28 and the counting of votes will take place on May 31.
The Kairana Lok Sabha seat fell vacant after the death of sitting BJP MP Hukum Singh in February. Jats and Gujjars are two largest chunks of voters in Kairana. While BJP leaders are confident that Gujjar voters will stick with the BJP out of sympathy for deceased MP Hukum Singh, a Gujjar, the Jat voter could prove to be the kingmakers of Kairana. After losses in the Gorakhpur and Phulpur Lok Sabha bypolls, BJP leaders don’t want to leave any stone unturned in Kairana.
Communal tensions in Kairana have been high ever since 2016, after Hukum Singh alleged that 250 Hindu families had fled Kairana in a “mass exodus” over the last few years due to “pressure from another community”.
Singh went as far as to claim that Kairana was becoming “another Kashmir” with Hindu families fleeing. While the BJP leadership endorsed his claims, the district administration and the ruling Samajwadi Party had vehemently denied them.
According to the local administration, “only three families” had left Kairana due to “worsening law and order” situation. Singh, however, received a huge fillip after the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) vindicated his claims and held riot-refugees responsible for altering the demographics of the small town. This had led to a disagreement between the NHRC and the National Commission for Minorities (NCM), which held that the reports of an ‘exodus’ were exaggerated.
Singh was also accused of nepotism and lobbying for his daughter Mriganka Singh, who contested and lost the 2017 UP Assembly polls from the Kairana Assembly seat.
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