LUCKNOW: A wrong map of India displayed on the posters of a play has landed the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) in a controversy yet again. The play — Jis Lahore nai vekhya, o jamai nai, written by noted playwright Asgar Wajahat — was scheduled to be staged at Kennedy Hall on Sunday evening, but was postponed on the orders of AMU proctorial board at the last moment owing to the row.
The posters, put up in front of the Arts faculty and at the main Bab-e-Syed gate of the AMU campus, were taken down as the row erupted over Jammu and Kashmir and parts of the Northeast missing from India’s map depicted on them. The university administration, however, downplayed the controversy. “It was rather an error which led to the display of India’s wrong map on the poster. As it was brought to the notice of university authorities, the poster was immediately withdrawn,” AMU spokesman Prof Shafey Kidwai said, adding that the play was postponed till further orders.
The play is about a Muslim family which migrates from Lucknow to Lahore after Partition and gets a haveli to settle in. The haveli was vacated by a Hindu family which had moved to India. But the Muslim family finds an old Hindu woman living there and not prepared to leave. They settle there with her and eventually drop the idea of asking her to leave.
According to sources, the error in the map was noticed by Dr Manvendra Singh, member, National Monitoring Committee for Minorities’ Education. He reported the matter to ADM (City) Aligarh, S B Singh, who got in touch with the university administration. The AMU Proctorial Board swung into action and got the posters removed.
Talha Thakur, director of the play and president of AMU Dram Club, said the map on the poster was of undivided India. “We got a phone call from proctor office, so we postponed the show,” said Thakur. on on the poster issue is cleared, he added.