Sukbir Badal: Renaming Dyal Singh college is bad name to country's secular fabric
Former deputy chief minister and Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal urged PM Narendra Modi to intervene to nip attempts to create communal tension by renaming Dyal Singh College as Vande Matram College. https://twitter.com/officeofssbadal/status/933656710782136320 Giving details of the controversy, Mr Badal said Dyal Singh was a great philanthropist–patriot who had willed his estate in 1895 for the establishment of an educational trust. The Dyal Singh College was established at Lahore in 1910. After the Partition of India, Dyal Singh College was established in Karnal and Delhi. It started functioning in the capital as a constituent college of the University of Delhi in 1959 and was taken over by the University of Delhi as a university maintained institution in 1978. “The decision of the Governing Body to change the name from Dyal Singh College to Vande Matram Vidyalya is thus a breach of this clause”, he added. “Already passions have begun to be aroused along sectarian lines on the issue. This needs to be nipped in the bud, denying any excuse to mischievous elements to disturb the hard earned atmosphere of peace and communal harmony, especially in Punjab and Delhi”, he added. Stating that the issue really was one of preserving the patriotic heritage bequeathed to the country by one of the greatest nationalists in the form of S Dyal Singh Majithia who was also behind the creation of The Tribune newspaper and Punjab National Bank, Mr Badal requested the Prime Minister to intervene and get the needless provocation stopped so that a measure of sobriety could be restored on this issue. Your kind intervention will strengthen the sentiment of peace and communal harmony in the country”, he added. Any move to rename Dyal Singh college will bring a bad name to the country's secular fabric. Already passions aroused on sectarian lines, he added further. https://twitter.com/officeofssbadal/status/933658143418019841 He said there were countless institutions in the country being run in the name of Sardar Bhagat Singh, Mahatama Gandhi and others and no one could think of replacing these names with Vande Matram even though one could stretch logic mischievously to justify this step. “It would be hard to understand the rationale or the mindset behind such moves, as it is behind the move to change the name of Dyal Singh College”, he added. https://twitter.com/officeofssbadal/status/933658499472547843 -PTC News
