By RINA,
New Delhi: Leaders of top Muslim organizations have condemned the Union Human Resource Development Ministry for trying to enforce the provision of 27% OBC quota on Jamia Millia Islamia.
Spokesman of Jamiat Ulama-e-Hind Maulana Abdul Hameed Nomani said, “Entrapping Muslims in trivia is old game plan of government.” He was reacting over HRD ministry’s warning to Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI) to implement 27 percent OBC quota else face withdrawal of government grant worth Rs. 70 crore. Others have reacted even more sharply.
Ameer of Jamaat-e-Islami Hind, Maulana Jalauddin Umri said, “JMI and Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) are the institutions established by Muslims and if Congress-led UPA government is meddling in their affairs, it will be foolish.”
“On one side, the government talks of schemes to remove Muslims’ backwardness but on the other it wants to snatch away Muslims’ own institutions.” He pointed out that Muslims need twenty more universities for eradication of their educational backwardness but government is adamant to swallow down the handful Muslim educational institutions.
Calling government’s demand to implement 27 percent OBC quota a ‘fulsome excess’, the secretary of All India Muslim Personal Law Board and Sajjadah Masheen of Khanqah Rahmani in Munger, Maulana Mohammad Wali Rahmani said, “Even if government accorded it the status of a general university and gives financial assistance to it, JMI remain a minority institution.”
Mohammad Wali Rahmani argued,”Legal suit on Jamia’s minority status is under hearing, therefore constitutionally, HRD ministry has no right to issue any such order that would result in abrogation of the minority character.” He further said, “Article 30 of the Constitution stipulates that no discrimination will be made in providing aid whether it is a general or a minority institution.”
Imam of Fatehpuri Jame’ Masjid Maulana Mufti Mohammad Mukarram and Delhi Minority Commission chairman Kamal Farooqui also condemned HRD ministry’s untenable initiative. Founder of Delhi’s Darul Qalam, Maulana Yaseen Akhtar Misbahi said, “This clearly reveals that any grant to Muslims shall be given only after humiliating them.” Expressing amazement over the directive, he said, “Everyone knows that Muslims established JMI exclusively for Muslims. Why did HRD minister not know this?”
Regretting HRD ministry’s initiative, the convener of Minority Status Coordination Committee, Mohammad Ilyas Malik said, “We are holding meeting and soon we will talk to JMI vice-chancellor and then organize a conference of Milli leaders and intellectuals to work out how to put pressure on the government to resolve the tangle.”
President of Jamia Teachers Association, Prof. Nusratullah Khan said, “Twenty-seven percent OBC reservation does not apply to JMI as according to CEI—Reservation in Admissions 2006 passed by the parliament does not apply to minority institutions. Government does not have any right to withheld grant because this is our fundamental right.”