Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath indicated in the presence of Amit Shah on Saturday that Azamgarh district could be rechristened Aryamgarh, in keeping with the BJP’s penchant for airbrushing names with Muslim associations.

“Nobody should have any doubt that the foundation stone for the university we are laying here today will convert Azamgarh into Aryamgarh,” Adityanath said at the event to flag off the state varsity. The foundation stone for Suheldev University was laid by Shah, the Union home minister.

Adityanath left no doubt about the BJP’s intention to play its pet communal card in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections next year.

“Remember, it is the same Azamgarh were I was attacked in 2007. We had arrived here at that time because Ajit Rai was killed at Shibli National College. He was a worker of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad and had advocated the singing of Vande Mataram on Republic Day,” the chief minister said.

“Brothers and sisters, he was killed on the college campus near the office of the principal and an FIR was not registered for a month. Can anybody today dare to kill someone in full public view?” Adityanath added.

Rai, a student leader, had been killed at the gate of Shibli National College in 2007 during union elections. Although the BJP had claimed that he was murdered for supporting the recital of Vande Mataram on Republic Day, both police and the college had denied this. The police had said Rai’s death was the fallout of the political rivalry between two groups of students.

Adityanath, who was then the Gorakhpur MP, had visited Azamgarh and held a meeting. On his way back, some unidentified people had pelted his convoy with stones.

Adityanath said the upcoming university would start functioning from the next academic session.

Around 400 colleges of Azamgarh and Mau districts will be affiliated to it and about two lakh students studying in these institutions would get their degrees from the new university.

The BJP has been claiming for many decades that Azamgarh, with a substantial Muslim population, is “a nursery of terrorists”.

The communal campaign had got shriller after the death of two youths from Azamgarh in the encounter at Batla House in Delhi’s Jamia Nagar on September 19, 2008. Many youths from Azamgarh had been arrested from different parts of the country in the aftermath of the encounter.

The then UPA government had said the youths were Pakistan-trained terrorists. While many of the youths arrested during that time still languish in jail, the terrorism charges are yet to be proved.

Many Muslims in Azamgarh believe that governments in general have been vindictive towards them because their family members work in the Gulf and earn enough to send money back home for a decent life and higher education for children.