By TCN News,
Boston: Former Chairman of the Prime Minister’s High Level Committee on Indian Muslim Status, now popularly known as Sachar Committee, Justice Rajinder Sachar, visited Boston on the invitation of the American Federation of Muslims of Indian Origin (AFMI) for a discussion on the Committee’s findings. Welcoming the guest, Dr. Suhaib Siddiqi (Scientist and Vice President of AFMI’s Boston Chapter) spoke about AFMI’s milestones and cited several landmark AFMI projects including Kausa school (Mumbai), assistance to flood victims in Bihar and help to the homeless in Assam. He also explained AFMI scholarships for poor students from the Muslim community. Dr.Siddiqi appealed to the audience for assisting the cause of Indian Muslims. He was followed by Dr. Omar Khalidi (Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology), who dwelt upon Muslim education in India, including Urdu as a spoken language. Dr. Khalidi applauded the secular and democratic nature of the Indian democracy and complimented Justice Sachar for his outstanding work.
Justice Sachar
A powerpoint summary of the Sachar Committee report was presented by the Secretary of AFMI’s Boston chapter, Dr. Kashif Mahmood (Department of Internal Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital). Dr. Mahmood outlined the data provided by the Sachar report regarding the educational and socio-economic status of Indian Muslims. He also detailed employment opportunities and standards of living for rural and urban Indian Muslim population.
Suhaib Siddiqi
Justice Sachar urged the Indian Muslim community to take full advantage of government programs for minorities. He spoke about Wakf properties not being either fully or properly utilized. Justice Sachar also mentioned minority initiatives, which have materialized as a result of the Sachar Committee recommendations. Later, he interacted with the audience members consisting of eminent Indians and other nationalities from all over New England as well as New Jersey, through a question answer session moderated by Mr. Zahir Adil, (Software Engineer, Aerosynthesis). Responding to many questions by the audience, Justice Sachar spoke about Government of India initiatives for modernization of madarsas noting that there was a misconception that madarsas were only places for religious education. He cited the good work done by National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions. On the topic of Urdu, Justice Sachar noted that Urdu was the language of all Indians and not just that of one community. He underlined the fact that Urdu was the second language in several states of India and the Indian government offers several programs for the promotion of the Urdu language.
Kashif Mahmood
Audience
Finally, Mr.Zahir Adil gave the vote of thanks.
The full video of the event may be found at: http://www.deedahwar.net/sachar/AFMISachar.html