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UP cabinet nod to new university to be named after Jat king in Aligarh
Chief minister Yogi Adityanath had made the announcement on September 14 about the new university and the cabinet on Monday approved an amendment to the Uttar Pradesh State Universities Act 1973 to pave way for the university’s establishment.
The Uttar Pradesh cabinet on Monday gave its nod to setting up of a new university in Aligarh named after Raja Mahendra Pratap Singh, a freedom fighter and social reformer, who had given 3.04 acre land on lease at ₹2 per annum to Aligarh Muslim University in 1929.
Chief minister Yogi Adityanath had made the announcement on September 14 about the new university and the cabinet on Monday approved an amendment to the Uttar Pradesh State Universities Act 1973 to pave way for the university’s establishment.
“The state cabinet has approved an amendment to the Uttar Pradesh State Universities Act to set up the new university that will have jurisdiction over colleges in Kasganj, Hathras and Etah, besides Aligarh. The colleges there will remain affiliated to Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar University, Agra, till the new university takes shape,” said UP ministers and government spokesmen Sidharth Nath Singh and Shrikant Sharma while briefing media persons here on Monday.
BJP MP from Aligarh Satish Gautam thanked the Yogi government for the decision and said his endeavor would be to make and develop the new university named (after the Hindu king of Jat community) like the AMU.
“After becoming MP in 2014, I had demanded that Raja Mahendra Pratap Singh be given his due and AMU should give reservation to OBCs, SCs and STs. We have got the new university for the brighter future of the local youth. I will now ensure reservation to OBCs, SCs and STs at AMU,” said Gautam.
While making the announcement about the new university a month before the October 21 assembly by-polls for Iglas (Aligarh) and 10 other constituencies in UP, Adityanath had said Raja Mahendra Pratap Singh had donated his land to the AMU but the benefits of his move were not passed on to all sections of the society as scheduled caste/scheduled tribe (SC/ST) students were denied reservation in admission at AMU.
The valiant ruler was not given credit for donating land to the AMU and his government was setting up the university in the name of the Jat leader, Adityanath had said while pointing out the reasons for setting up the new university.
After the announcement, the BJP’s Rajkumar Sahyogi won the Iglas seat in October while the nomination papers of the Rashtriya Lok Dal candidate Mukesh Kumar, known for his influence among the Jats, was rejected.
This is not for the first time that Raja Mahendra Pratap Singh has been brought into focus to woo the Jat community. A demand for Mahendra Pratap Singh’s portrait at AMU was made amid a controversy over Mohammad Ali Jinnah’s portrait at the same university last year.
Besides, a controversy had erupted in Aligarh in 2014 when the BJP asked Aligarh Muslim University to celebrate the 128th birth anniversary of the Jat king on December 1 at the university gate that year. The BJP had organised a small programme at its office in Aligarh and got an assurance from the then vice chancellor to hold a seminar on the Raja later.
The AMU website also has a post about such a seminar organised there on December 1, 2016 to mark the birth anniversary of Raja Mahendra Pratap. The then Aligarh Muslim University vice chancellor Lt General Zameer Uddin Shah (retired) has been quoted as saying, “Raja Pratap was a proud AMU alumnus, who urged the students to follow in the footsteps of Sir Syed Ahmad Khan and to join the ‘freedom movement. Raja Pratap’s family was closely associated with Sir Syed Ahmad Khan, the founder of the institution and they also donated land, where AMU’s City School is situated. We have always acknowledged that the Raja did lease 3.04 acres of land to AMU in 1929 at a rate of Rs. 2/- per annum and we are proud of his contribution.”
AMU Pro Vice Chancellor Brigadier S Ahmad Ali said, “The late Raja stood for the ‘values of secularism.’ Raja Pratap was president of India’s first provisional government in exile established at Kabul in 1915, which was established with the help of some leading Muslim clerics.”
Earlier, on November 27, 2014, Lt General Zameeruddin Shah (retd) had sent a letter to the then Union human resource development minister regarding developments relating to Raja Mahendra Pratap’s birth anniversary celebrations on the AMU campus.
“AMU does not want to get involved in politics and the university needs the Ministry’s earnest support urgently as there is a serious threat to law and order,” he said.
“Plans of certain elements at Aligarh to celebrate ‘Raja Mahendra Pratap Day’ inside the AMU campus on 01 December 2014 (his anniversary) has potential of leading to massive student unrest on the AMU campus.”
