‘Make temple on AMU campus or…’: BJP youth wing leader writes to Vice Chancellor

District president of Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM), the youth wing of the BJP, has demanded the construction of a temple for Hindu students on premises of the Aligarh Muslim University.

BJYM district president Mukesh Singh Lodhi wrote a letter to vice-chancellor Tariq Mansoor on Thursday pressing for his demand, saying he had 15 days to reply or thousands of BJYM workers will enter the campus to do a “murti sthapana”.

‘’Sir Syed Ahmad Khan, the founder of Aligarh Muslim University, had stated that both Hindu and Muslims are the two eyes of AMU and this should be the driving force for the vice-chancellor of the university to allow the construction of a temple on AMU campus,” Lodhi wrote in his letter to the vice-chancellor.

The BJYM leader said that thousands of Hindu students at AMU face problem in offering prayers because there are no temples on the university’s campus and it should be constructed.

“This act of the vice-chancellor would strengthen Hindu-Muslim unity in the nation and would communicate a message for the nation. The VC should follow the maxim of ‘Sabka Saath Sabka Vikas’ and allocate land for the construction of the temple,” Lodhi said.

The spokesperson for AMU Shafey Kidwai said the university is yet to receive the letter from Lodhi.

“At this juncture, we will not be able to comment on the content of the letter,” Kidwai said.

An office bearer of AMU’s students’ union has questioned the timing of Lodhi’s demand and termed it as a “stunt” to gain attention ahead of the Lok Sabha election later this year.

AMU students’ union vice-president Hamza Sufyan said those who are demanding temples inside the campus will only be allowed to do so if they receive permission from the government and university administration.

“If the university doesn’t grant them any permission to make any temple inside the premise, they can’t set a foot inside the campus. This statement of building temple forcefully is showing their mentality. They are nothing more than a group of uneducated people,” Sufyan said.

“Such false issues of mandir-masjid are only raised before the elections. It doesn’t have anything to do with reality. The university is there for a long time and it took them 100 years to raise this non-existing issue. This is a clear stunt to gain attention before the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. I am requesting everyone to avoid hearing such statements. Let them talk, our silence will become a rather louder answer,” he said.

However, Lodhi denied the accusation and said students believe that the present regime in the state and Centre is considerate while the past regime was not interested in such demand of Hindu students.

The AMU administration had blocked the entry of a few BJYM workers into the campus on January 26, who were carrying the Tricolour and trying to enter the campus as a part of their tiranga yatra on Republic Day. They did not have permission for the rally.

BJYM’s decision to carry out a tiranga yatra came two-day after the university issued notices to two students, including the grandson of BJP MLA Dalveer Singh, Ajay Singh, for taking out a similar rally in the campus without a nod from AMU authorities.