The Congress party has put forward the former student leader of the Muslim University of Aligarh (AMU), Maskoor Usmani, as a candidate for the next elections to the Bihar assembly. It will participate in the Jale constituency in the Darbhanga district of Bihar. Usmani’s candidacy has given the BJP a new opportunity to criticize Congress and thus has accused Usmani of being a ‘Jinnah supporter’.
Aaj Tak made broadcasts in which he suggested that Congress will seek votes based on the “genius of Jinnah”, while the problems of development and corruption will take a back seat.
The presenter Rohit Sardana in his daily program ‘Dangal’ invited several panelists to discuss Usmani’s candidacy. The channel claimed several times (1:24 minutes and 6:20 minutes) that in 2018 Usmani had installed a portrait of the founder of Pakistan, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, on AMU.
The graphic plate below reads: “Maskoor Usmani had installed Jinnah’s portrait while at AMU [students’ union] President.”
At 6:20 minutes into the broadcast, BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra expressed his grief at the Congress decision to give Usmani a ticket: “It is not important who wins or loses the election. Today, India is losing. The oldest national party for which India was divided is again trying to win votes by selling Jinnah. I’m sad, not happy. “
To this, Sardana said: “Patra HeeYou have looked into my heart But also look into your heart and tell me if you are not satisfied that they gave you a ticket and now you can emphasize that you are a massive anti-national.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cS3kmAD8DVg
Aaj Tak executes the false claim
That Jinnah’s portrait has been hanging at AMU since 1938 is public knowledge.
The issue sparked controversy in 2018 when armed activists from Hindu Yuva Vahini descended on the AMU campus with alleged police support to demand that the portrait be removed. Dozens of students were injured in the violence.
Because of Jinnah’s portrait hanging since 1938, Hindutva activists attack AMU students https://t.co/sf132cXZN6 pic.twitter.com/Um6lIYhCI7
– The wire (@thewire_in) May 3, 2018
The media also reported images of police carrying lathis at students and firing tear gas canisters.
AMU Vice Chancellor Tariq Mansoor had dismissed the dispute over Jinnah’s portrait on campus as a problem.
“Jinnah’s portrait has been here since 1938. Jinnah’s portrait is in many places, including the Bombay High Court and the Sabarmati Ashram. Nobody was worried about the portraits until now, I think it’s not a problem ”, he was quoted when asked if the portrait should be removed.
“The history of a country has both dark and bright pages. No one at AMU supports Jinnah’s two-nation theory, but we must accept that he is an important part of Indian history, ”said former AMU student union president Masksoor Usmani. The Telegraph. Usmani’s objection to the BJP’s demands to remove the portrait was preserving history.
His video statement was broadcast by News Nation on August 7, 2018, where Usmani said: “It is the autonomy of the student union to decide what should be done with the paint. This is not new. Why does this question keep coming up? It’s because they want to make Jinnah an agenda in the 2019 elections … the portrait is just a story that has been on campus not since today but for 80 years. We have said several times that Jinnah is our history, not religion. “
During the dispute with Jinnah, Riaz-Ur-Sherwani, 94, who was present when AMUSU unveiled Jinnah’s portrait in 1938, told the media that the matter was a “personal matter” for the students. “Sherwani is known to vehemently oppose Jinnah and her policies, yet says that when the portrait was put up, the” country’s circumstances were different “and no outsider can dictate what should be hung in the college hall “, wrote News18 in a report dated May 6, 2018.
In an opinion piece on The rostrum, journalist Karan Thapar commented that the decision to hang Jinnah’s portrait in AMU was based on their early 20th century policy. “The Jinnah of the first three decades of the 20th century was a very different person from the man Pakistanis call Qaid-e-Azam,” Thapar wrote.
Maskoor Usmani told Alt News that the narrative being sold in the media, that he installed the portrait of Jinnah, is false propaganda. “I would like to state clearly and boldly that I have no opinion that supports Jinnah in any respect. The movement that I had followed at AMU in 2018 had been on different issues and the corrupt forms of the media focused on highlighting a portrait hung in Union Hall to disrupt the movement and damage the name of the institution and mine as a leader of the students. ‘union at that time.
First of all, let me state this with complete confidence that the portrait issue was a controversy to divert the attention of the population. Second, that particular portrait hangs there not because I think so. Jinnah’s portrait hangs alongside the greatness of Jawaharlal Nehru and Mahatma Gandhi. At the time this problem arose, I had sent a letter to Prime Minister Modi and Rajnath Singh saying that neither the movement nor I had any problem removing the portrait in its entirety, ”he said.
Congress gave Usmani a ticket instead of the grandson of former Minister of Railways Lalit Narayan Mishra Rishi Mishra who said he left JD (U) to compete with Jale. Mishra called Usami “anti-national and worshiper of Jinnah” and claimed that he has the photo of the founder of Pakistan in his office.
“It is a shameful act of a person who wanted to buy a ticket to Congress. Now, when he has not succeeded, he goes on to hit the name of the Congress party. All these statements that are narrated are proof of how they fear that the party will rise. I also suspect that people like [Mishra] out of resentment towards me and the party they are spreading propaganda to make me look wrong in the eyes of the people and the party, ”Usmani said.
Aaj Tak’s claim that Maskoor Usmani hung a portrait of Jinnah inside the AMU campus is false. The portrait has been there since the time before Independence.
The article was published in Alt News. Read the original here.
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