Mumbai: “We need to forget communal violence. A stone pelted in a riot can be used to build a school,” stated CM Uddhav Thackeray on Saturday. Luminaries of the political and cine world shared the dais on the renaming of Anjuman-I-Islam law college.
The 27-year-old law college has been renamed as “Barrister AR Antulay College of Law” after former CM and Congress leader late Abdul Rahman Antulay. The evening also saw the launch of book ‘Bantam Nargis, Baqalam aur Antulay’, an anthology of letters exchanged between late Antulay and his wife Nargis Antulay over two decades of 1950s and 1960s. Uddhav was present alongside NCP chief Sharad Pawar and senior Congress neta Ghulam Nabi Azad.
Politicians — Sanjay Raut, Nawab Malik, Arvind Sawant, Ashok Chavan — and lyricist and poet Javed Akhtar were also present. “The Shiv Sena has been dubbed communal. But everyone knew Sena always considered them brother who were nationalist minded,” Thackeray added.
On the relationship Antulay shared with his father, Sena founder late Balasaheb Thackeray, the CM stated, “Had he alive today, Antulay saab would have been happy on seeing his friend’s son becoming the CM. He always favoured the party to the extent that once he said he is an ambassador of Sena.”
NCP patriarch Sharad Pawar recalled the time when he was elected for the first time as an MLA in 1967, saying it was the same year when Antulay became an MLA. “Antulay and I started our political careers almost at the same time. When he became the CM, Maharashtra was in a terrible state, but he worked bravely to uplift the state,” said Pawar.
“Balasaheb supported the imposition of emergency. It shows the friendship they maintained beyond partylines in those days,” Pawar added. Azad said the university will offer 50% quota to female and non-Muslim students and the college would not offer admission on religious grounds.
