By TwoCircles.net staff reporter
New Delhi : A delegation consisting of All India Urdu Educational Committee president Jaleel Pasha, Friends for Education president Feroz Bakht Ahmad, well-known educationist Iqbal Muhammad Malik and renowned legal expert Muhammad Tayyab Siddiqui and others submitted a memorandum to Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil, urging the government to declare the birthday of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad – 11th November – as National Education Day in the manner Bihar declared it last year at the State level.
The memorandum also urged the government to declare Urdu as the second official language of the country, and introduce it as an essential subject in all Kendriya, Navodaya, missionary and convent schools under three-language formula so that it may become equally popular among Hindu, Muslim, Sikh and Christian students.
The memorandum complained that the Congress did seek and win Muslim votes in the name of Urdu but made no sincere efforts for the progress and advancement of the language.
"If the government declares 11th November as National Education Day, the Congress will be able to reap more Muslim votes in the next general elections," Mr Pasha emphasised while talking to presspersons after submitting the memorandum.
Mr Feroz Bakht Ahmad said Muslims will continue to be humiliated until they stand up and come forward to ‘snatch’ their rights from the government.
He informed the presspersons that the delegation also called on the HRD Minister Arjun Singh who appreciated their demand to declare 11th November as National Education Day and promised to talk to the Home Minister in this regard.