By Manzar Bilal, TwoCircles.net,
Patna: To protest against the alleged attempt of Bihar government to throw out Urdu language from the state and injustice to the Urdu teachers, Karwan-e-Urdu will be organizing a protest march to Raj Bhavan in Patna on January 10, 2012, marking the birth anniversary of freedom fighter and hero of Urdu movement late Ghulam Sarwar.
“Bihar is the state which has pride to grant Urdu the status of second official language in 1981 following the public movement. But since the Nitish Kumar led government came to power, a well-planned attempt to whip out Urdu language from the state is going on silently. If it is not countered now, the dangerous result will come out affecting Urdu-knowing people who are mostly Muslims” said Prof. Ghulam Ghaus, the Convener of Karwan-e-Urdu, while talking to TCN.
Ghulam Ghaus mobilizing support in Muzaffarpur for Raj Bhawan march for Urdu
Prof. Ghaus, who is also leader of opposition in Bihar Legislative Council said that to start a movement against the apathetic attitude of Bihar Government towards Urdu will be the real tribute to the Late Ghulam Sarwar who fought for the right of the language in his whole lifetime.
Asked if he has any example to prove his allegations against Bihar Government, he said: “Not one, there are so many examples which make it clear that Nitish Kumar led government is taking steps against Urdu and Muslims under the influence of BJP. I have examples of many primary Urdu schools which were converted into Hindi medium. There are many schools where Urdu was taught as subject but in this government it was stopped.”
“In 2006, Nitish Government ruled out Urdu as optional subject in matriculation examination. After continuous protest by the well-wishers of Urdu, the government now promised that the language will be back as subject but from 2013. I want to ask the government that what was the need to remove the language from the syllabus and then why is it not allowing it in 2012 exam?” asked Ghulam Ghaus.
He further said that since 1932 fazils of madarsa were considered as trained and for getting teachers’ job they did not need any additional training but in 2006 Nitish government declined this status and made training mandatory for them.
“Take another example of anti-Muslim attitude of Nitish Government. Since 1977, madarsa degrees were granted as equivalent to schools degrees–Wastania to 8th class, Fauqania to Matric, Maulvi to Intermediate and Alim to graduation. In 2009, there was vacancy for almost 1800 government jobs in different departments. 545 Muslim candidates were selected fulfilling the criteria of the jobs. Then again the Nitish Government played a trick to reduce the number of Muslim candidates and as many of them came up with madarsa degrees, the government ended up the status of madarsa degrees as equivalent to school degrees. Though, community protested against it and later the status was restored but after the recruitment was done for the jobs” he told.
Did you raise the issue in the Legislative Council? “I have been raising these issues in the house and also organized dharna and protest but the government did not change its behavior. It seems NDA government is totally under the control of RSS and Sangh Privar who are implementing their anti-Muslim agenda” he said.
“Latest in the series is the government’s efforts to prevent Muslims from being Urdu teachers despite clear order of Supreme Court. According to SC order, a total of 34540 primary teachers should be recruited. Of them, 12862 seats were reserved for Urdu teachers. But the state government made all efforts to bar the Urdu teachers from getting jobs” he alleged adding “For example, this recruitment is being done on the basis of 2003 government advertisement in which Urdu teachers should have read Urdu for 50 marks in Intermediate. But for the same vacancy in 2010 it was added that they must have read Urdu for 200 marks in intermediate while the fact is that it is not taught for 200 marks. And also the two-year training was made necessary for Urdu teachers. Why these conditions were not applied for teachers of other subjects.”
He also said those who passed matric before 1995 and got 2-year training were allowed to apply for recruitment but the same was denied to those who have same qualification and training and applied for Urdu teachers’ posts.
Is the Chadar to cover up his misdeeds for Muslim community?
“Out of 12862, the state government finally issued the list of only 4827 Urdu teachers while the rest of the seats were fielded by other candidates. The reasons of this number are many including unnecessary conditions and rejection of the many applications citing that the institutions from where the candidates got degrees were fake. Ironically, the pass out of the same institutions in different subject other than Urdu were approved. This double standard exposes the anti-Muslim face of Nitish Government” added Prof. Ghaus.
He demanded that government must respect and follow the SC order and recruit the sanctioned number of Urdu teachers. “Our Raj Bhavan march scheduled on 10th Jan. 2012 is being supported by many political parties and various groups working for the Urdu. It will be warning for the present state government to give up its anti Muslim attitude.
Asked about the next step if his demand is not considered by the government, he said: “We will give three months to the government to correct its blunders regarding Urdu and Urdu-knowing people. In case of inaction, we will hit the road in capital city with 50 thousand people from across the state and then government will have to bow down before people movement as it happened in land issue of Kishanganj AMU Centre.”
[TCN Photos]