By Md Mudassir Alam,
New Delhi: Constitution of India is equal for all, then why the legal issues related to establishment of AMU (Aligarh Muslim University) centres outside Aligarh is applying only for Kishanganj? If the AMU Centres are already running at Mallapuram in Kerala and Murshidabad in West Bengal, then why the Central government is delaying the official formalities to establish the centre in Kishanganj, Bihar? With this big question and many other concerns including unprecedented delay made by MHRD regarding AMU Kishanganj a delegation of Delhi based NGO Human Chain met Union Minister of Law and Minority Affairs Salman Khurshid at his residence on Friday morning. The delegation led by President Mohammad Aslam has put many questions before the minister and urged him to provide urgent attention on the long drawn issue.
The Cabinet Minister has cited the legal issues as the reason behind the delay in the establishment of AMU Centre in Kishanganj. In fact, he made it clear that the file of AMU Kishanganj has not come to his office for fulfilling of any formality, hence he is not aware about the exact reason. Mohammad Aslam told Salman Khurshid that the Supreme Court has not issued any order to stop the construction work in any centre of AMU. If the Apex Court had not intervened yet into the matter, then the Central Government can go ahead with construction work in Kishanganj, added Aslam. The core members of Human Chain Khalid Mubashshir, Minnat Rahmani and Taqueer Alam (JNU) told the union minister that the sessions in Kerala and West Bengal had been started two years back in December 2010. Only the AMU Kishanganj centre is not getting any attention and the hopes of millions of residents of Seemanchal region are shattering with every passing day.
The Minority Affairs minister listened to the arguments of Human Chain delegates featuring Naved Shamshi, Salam Anwer, Zahoor Alam, Nasim Haider, Gauhar Mahmood, Najeeb Sagar, Dilshad Ghani, Subhani, Hasnain, Shafique and Parwez Mohammad. The long discussion between Salman Khurshid and Human Chain delegation ended in a positive note. After listening all the aspects and hurdles, the Law Minister assured the delegation that he will take them to Union HRD Minister Kapil Sibal for a meeting shortly so that the AMU Kishanganj deadlock comes to an end. Human Chain members looked quite satisfied after meeting with Salman Khurshid, but until and unless any green signal comes from the Centre it will be too early to celebrate. It should be noted that Human Chain is continuously working on AMU Kishanganj issue and doing every possible thing to physically see the special centre in the Seemanchal region of Bihar. However, the official formalities and missing links among the government ministries have already delayed the project by four years since it was announced by the former Vice Chancellor of AMU Prof P.K. Abdul Azis in 2008.