After uproar in AMU, now a row over Jinnah House and hall in Mumbai

There seems to be no end to controversies concerning Muhammad Ali Jinnah. After the uproar over his portrait in the Aligarh Muslim University, now objections have been raised by another Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader to Jinnah House and Jinnah Hall in Mumbai.

Mumbai BJP MLA Prabhat Lodha has demanded that Jinnah House and Jinnah Hall should be converted to cultural centres and that Jinnah’s name must be removed from them. Jinnah House was home of Muhammad Ali Jinnah in Mumbai and the hall was named after the Muslim League leader.

This comes even as AMU students have been agitating for the past few days, demanding action against the right-wing protesters, who entered the campus and demanded the removal of Jinnah's portrait from the student union's office. The row started after local BJP MP Satish Gautam wrote to AMU, raising objections to the portrait.

On Thursday, 28 students and 13 cops were injured in a clash which broke out between AMU students and the police, forcing the administration to take several preventive measures.

The Muslim Mahasangh in Rampur also later announced a reward of Rs 1 lakh for burning the photo of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, which triggered a massive uproar at the AMU.

Blaming Jinnah for having broken the country at the time of partition, Farhat - the national head of All-India Muslim Mahasangh - announced that the reward would be given to anyone who burns Jinnah's photo which created ruckus at AMU.

However, Jamaat-e-Islami Hind on Saturday questioned the rationale behind the demands to remove the portrait of Pakistan founder from the AMU history.

"What is the rationale behind such a demand after it has been there in public view for the past 80 years? Even if someone has such a demand, they can move courts for the same... Why such a row over it?" its chief Maulana Syed Jalaluddin Umari asked.

Umari said that it was a small issue that has been blown out of proportion. Siding with the AMU students, Umari said that it has always been a practice in AMU to display portraits of its lifetime members of the students' union in the campus.

Responding to it, BJP hit back saying those standing with Jinnah also stood for terrorist Afzal Guru. BJP spokesperson Sudanshu Trivedi said that those who are standing for Pakistan founder Muhammad Ali Jinnah also stood for terrorists like Afzal Guru.

Speaking to ANI, Trivedi castigated sympathisers of Jinnah, who was responsible for country's partition.

"People who are standing with Jinnah today, are the same people who stood with terrorist like Afzal Guru. It is unfortunate that certain people are standing by the side of a person who was responsible for the division of this country," Trivedi said.