The Congress may have been more ‘nationalistic’ at the time of the freedom struggle. However, in this day and age, it’s the Bhartiya Janata Party that’s too ‘nationalistic’ in action and approach. That is why we come across these paroxysms of communal activities so frequently. In this context, it would seem that the political players are using the current social situation to further their interests, as can be seen in the AMU Jinnah portrait saga.
Personally speaking, the incident has turned out to be a rich experience for me. The BJP used to show its disapproval of the Congress for its appeasement policies. However, it’s a real mystery how two BJP leaders have different views on Jinnah. One MP talked of shifting Jinnah’s portrait from the university’s union hall Union Hall, while the other minister rejected the need of removing the portrait.
Since both the politicians are from the same political party, their contradictory opinions appear to be a tad strange. While one leader raked up the issue to erase Jinnah, the other leader called him a ‘mahapurush‘. What can possibly explain such a difference in opinion?
It’s only obvious for a curious observer to be puzzled by this. After all, whatever made the matter so big was the sheer politics of it. If that wasn’t the case, the disturbance over the portrait issue should not have continued for so long.
The portrait, which has been in the university since 1920, has quickly become a political issue in 2018. It proves the fact that such ‘catchy issues’ attract the attention of our politicians more quickly – which they then use to serve their political purposes. In the meantime, the students of the university suffered a lot due to this vexing issue.