Mulayam's AMU visit cancelled

Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav’s visit to Aligarh Muslim University to address a seminar was cancelled on Sunday after widespread protests on the campus though no reason was given for the decision.

There were protests on the campus by a section of teachers in the past two days after it was announced that Yadav had been invited to address the seminar organised by Sir Syed Movement, a social organisation. He was to address the seminar on Monday.

A section of the students had also declared that they would invite BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi to the university. They took out a procession  inside the varsity campus on Saturday to register their protest and submitted a memorandum to the varsity authorities.

The participants shouted “anti-Mulayam” slogans and threatened to close the varsity gates in a bid to deny Mulayam entry into the campus.

The opposition came as a shock to the SP leadership which is hoping to corner a large chunk of Muslim votes in the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections. Leaders felt the protest could send a wrong signal to the Muslim community.

No official reason was given for the cancellation of the visit by the district administration.

AMU Teachers Association secretary Aftab Alam welcomed the decision and said the university community was anguished at the way the Uttar Pradesh government had handled the last year’s riots in Muzaffarnagar.

“We are also upset by Yadav’s opposition to the Communal Violence Prevention Bill. We had always looked upon the SP as a champion of secularism and were taken aback by the recent events,” Alam said.