AMID A row over Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s portrait at Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), Haryana’s Finance Minister Captain Abhimanyu Sunday said the university should be renamed after Raja Mahendra Pratap Singh, who “donated land for the university for education of Hindus as well as Muslims”.
“What can be more sad than the fact that no image of Raja Mahendra Pratap Singh has been displayed in the university. He donated land for the university without any hesitation and with an objective of education to all, irrespective of religion, but there is a portrait of Jinnah who divided this country,” Abhimanyu told a gathering at the foundation-laying ceremony of Jat Dharamshala in Rewari.
“This is the need of the hour: that the university be renamed after him. And this is possible only if a united demand is made,” Abhimanyu added.
Later, speaking to The Indian Express over phone, he said, “I don’t see anybody from the angle of caste and religion. Raja Mahendra Pratap Singh had worked for the unity and integrity of the country. Singh fought for Independence of ‘Akhand Bharat’ and worked for ‘Manav Dharam’. It will be most befitting to name the university after such a great personality of modern India.”
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