Hamid Ansari refuses to talk on 'nonsense' Jinnah controversy

Former Vice President Hamid Ansari on Wednesday termed the on-going controversy on Muhammad Ali Jinnah's portrait as a 'nonsense issue'.

Ansari made this remark while he visited the Aligarh Muslim University in Uttar Pradesh to attend a university event.

In a request to respond to the Jinnah controversy, Ansari said "I do not discuss nonsense issues. Let the politicians do the politics I am not concerned with it. "

Ansari further said that he has never done politics as he added, "I have stayed among the practitioners of politics for 10 years but have never done politics."

The controversy around Jinnah's poster rose after the Bharatiya Janata Party MP Satish Gautam on Tuesday wrote a letter to Aligarh Muslim University's Vice-Chancellor Tariq Mansoor, seeking an explanation for a portrait of Muhammad Ali Jinnah hung in the Students' Union Office.

The letter further mentioned that Jinnah was the main force behind the partition of India and how logical it would be to hang his portrait in the university.

Ansari further refused to comment upon the issues related to Jammu and Kashmir.

Meanwhile, a collective of Hindu groups protested outside the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) against the presence of Jinnah's poster inside the campus.

District Magistrate of Aligarh CB Singh told ANI, "The situation is peaceful, 2 RAF companies have been deployed in the area (AMU campus), there is no cause for worry."

Earlier on Tuesday Bhartiya Janata Party leader Uttar Pradesh minister S.P. Maurya said that the contribution of Pakistan's founder Muhammad Ali Jinnah before partition cannot be ignored.