By Akif Ahmad,
The Aligarh Muslim University administration has proved it time and again that at some occasions it is more loyal to the ruling class than the class itself.
The congress party did not postpone the Republic Day celebrations though the Head of the Government could not attend it due to an undergoing cardiac treatment. The country and its ways of function are more important than any individual, but for the university, which, for the second time in a row had postponed its two day “National Seminar on Minority Education in India”, because the chief guest our Honorable Human resource Development Minister was the priority.
The two-day seminar to be held at Kennedy Auditorium this weekend was going to be a congregation of educationist engaged with minorities coming from across the country. The event had assumed significance due to its magnanimity and timing, which is just ahead of the coming parliamentary elections.
The community has welcomed the attempt to bond people working in different part of the country to a mainstream establishment but now questions are being raised about the intent of such program, which can be predicted from the statement of a senior alumnus “Was it going to be a press conference of the minister?”
The official communiqué from the university cites the reason as state mourning due to the sad demise of ex-President of the country Mr. Venkataraman, what raises storm is the fact that in afternoon the vice chancellor convened a press conference at the Press Club of India inviting media persons to the event while in the evening the program is deferred. A few others feel that it was planned to polish off the congress party’s pro-Muslim image among intelligentsia and expected nothing but a pro-Muslim statement, a lip service exercise, which the Government had been consistently doing for the last five decades.
There are many programs and functions where the chief guest or other important dignitaries could not make it, particularly if they have a political background as they have many more important commitments to honor. Unless the organizing committee answers these concerns, allegations will continue to be made as what was more important, the dilemma of education among Muslims or the presence of a person on the dice.
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The writer is a Delhi based development professional and can be contacted at [email protected]