Facing protests, Mulayam Singh Yadav cancels Aligarh Muslim University lecture

ALIGARH: Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav cancelled his trip to Aligarh Muslim University citing the reason of code of conduct applicable on leaders ahead of MLC graduate constituency elections amid protests by teachers and students of the varsity. Yadav was to address the issue of minority status for AMU, an old demand around the campus.

Holding placards that said, 'We stand with Muzaffarnagar, not Mulayam', some students of the university, an influential centre of Muslim thought and philosophy, had joined their teachers in the protest.

"The decision will help the leader stay away from any further controversy," said Dr Rakshpal Singh, district president Samajwadi Party. "Ahead of the MLC graduate constituency elections it is better not to deliver any speech that unnecessarily draws flak for vote bank politics. And these protests are carried by a very small group of people who have their own political motivations; they are the mouthpiece of other political parties."

Aftab Alam from AMU Teachers' Association smells a rat in this excuse: "The terms and conditions of the elections were known from before, it didn't happen overnight. I think he is not prepared to face the anger of the Muslim community that is fuming with the callousness with which the post riot situation was handled and also the way the riot ran unchecked for days."