Opinion The Urdu Press: AMU Status
The Jamaat-e-Islami’s Daawat writes on February 1: “Once the Central government (the former UPA dispensation) took a stand on the minority character of the Aligarh Muslim University and submitted it before the court, the law should have taken its course.
We should not overstate the role of the Central legislature and underplay the role of those who really founded the AMU. The role of the 1920 act had more declaratory than constitutive value. 
Few issues have generated as much intense debate in the Urdu press as the minority character of Aligarh Muslim University and Jamia Millia Islamia. The Jamaat-e-Islami’s Daawat writes on February 1: “Once the Central government (the former UPA dispensation) took a stand on the minority character of the Aligarh Muslim University and submitted it before the court, the law should have taken its course. Why did the Modi government go back on it? Obviously, it wants to make it a political issue. Otherwise it wouldn’t have expressed its view against the minority character before the Supreme Court through the attorney general and would have stood by its earlier stand… There’s no such case about Jamia in court. Its minority character had been settled and acted upon in 2011… The issue is neither political nor legal and is a closed chapter. A conspiracy is now underway to reopen it and an effort is being made to make it a political and legal issue.”
Hyderabad-based Rehnuma-e-Deccan, in its January 24 editorial, writes: “Every time the AMU’s minority character has been under threat, admirers of its great services, including all non-communal people of the country, have raised their voice in protest. There’s a need to look at the minority character with a view that it’s imperative for the sound health and good image of the country… This will ensure unity and mutual understanding, a prosperous country and India’s image as a strong and healthy nation.”
Presidential Memory
Describing the observations of President Pranab Mukherjee about the demolition of the Babri Masjid in his memoirs, The Turbulent Years: 1980-96, as “a greatly courageous act”, Sahafat, in its editorial on January 30, writes: “The president has presented very bitter facts. According to him, the inability of then Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao to prevent the demolition of the mosque was his biggest failure…
The demolition was an act of deception that had disappointed him. The president says he could understand Rao’s sadness at the demolition as he had worked with him for many decades… [But] one cannot agree with the observation of the president because Rao was fully aware of the plan for demolition. And it would not be wrong to say that, in a way, he himself was a part of this plan. Therefore, the talk about his sadness and disappointment doesn’t seem correct… many important Congress leaders have considered Rao responsible for the demolition.”
Jadeed Khabar, on January 31, highlights the fact that “the president has not put only Rao in the dock… he has also criticised late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, saying that getting the locks of the Babri Masjid opened on February 1, 1986, was a wrong decision…”
Shah’s Challenge
Roznama Khabrain, in an editorial on January 27, writes: “The question is whether Amit Shah has really provided strength to the BJP or has been crowned only because of PM Narendra Modi’s stubbornness. The party’s internal situation is marked by turmoil. Sushma Swaraj, Vasundhara Raje, Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Arun Jaitley are facing serious allegations of misdemeanour. But Shah didn’t disturb anyone, nor did he question them and, instead, chose to show the door to senior party leader Kirti Azad. This posture of Shah made him tall in the eyes of the party. People saw how the fear of the party’s image getting tarnished was overshadowed by the… efforts to save the ministers. Therefore, no leader of the party talked of removing Shah… despite the party’s drubbing in the Bihar assembly elections. In fact, his second coronation can even be seen as a reward for his steps in support of allegedly corrupt leaders… Shah’s big challenge in his second innings is to remove the perception inside and outside the party that it’s controlled by a small group.”
Siasat, in its editorial on May 25, writes: “Despite his onerous responsibility for the forthcoming elections… Shah doesn’t seem to have learnt any lesson from the defeats in Delhi and Bihar, nor has he tried to bring about any change in the party’s functioning… People have started getting disappointed by the performance of the NDA government… Modi’s popularity has decreased. There are also differences within the party. All this is bound to make Shah’s second innings more difficult.”
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