By IndiaTomorrow.net,
New Delhi, 15 Oct 2015: Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been urged to declare the 17th Oct as Sir Syed Day in memory of Sir Syed Ahmed Khan, founder of Aligarh Muslim University and one of great educationists that the Indian Muslim community has ever produced.
Young political activist and founder of PolicySamvad.com, Shehzad Poonawalla on Thursday filed a petition with the PMO (Prime Minister’s Office) urging the PM Modi to intervene and officially declare the day as Sir Syed Day.
AMU and its alumni groups across the globe celebrate 17th Oct as Sir Syed Day.
“As you are probably aware, unofficially the AMU and its alumni have been celebrating Sir Syed Day and official recognition of this great patriot’s legacy must come from your good office,” he said
Poonawalla informed that to press the demand, a massive campaign is going to be launched on Social media from 17th Oct. Petitions will also be filed on Change.org.
He said Sir Syed deserves the status like that of Vivekananda and Tagore.
“As we approach Sir Syed’s 200th birthday on Oct 17th 2017, I hope you will consider my petition favourably and accord this icon the status he deserves just like Swami Vivekananda, Rabindranath Tagore and many others,” he wrote in the petition to PMO.
Shehzad Poonawalla
Poonawalla also urged the PM to increase the funding for AMU as it is a central university and to remove bottlenecks in expanding its network just like IIMs, IITs and AIIMS.
