On Campus and Beyond, Aligarh Muslim University Is at Centre of UP BJP's Communal Politics
Sravasti Dasgupta | 24 April 2024 | The Wire
Aligarh (Uttar Pradesh): If Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s openly communal remarks accusing the Congress of redistributing “mangalsutra”, “gold”, “land” and “property” of “mothers-sisters” to Muslims by misleadingly referring to a speech by his predecessor Manmohan Singh was meant to pitch a communal narrative in a manner symptomatic of the ten years of his government’s rule, nowhere is it more apparent than in Uttar Pradesh’s Aligarh, synonymous with the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU). The century-old central university has emerged as a flashpoint of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s majoritarian politics in the last five years as central universities, known to be liberal spaces of learning, have come under attack in the Modi decade.
Along with seven other seats in Uttar Pradesh, Aligarh goes to the polls on Friday (April 26).