By TwoCircles.net Staff Reporter,
Chennai: Apropos to the ultimatum call given by TMMK president Prof. M.H. Jawahirullah on Jan 6 to the Tamil Nadu Government that he would employ picketing at vantage points if concerned education authorities ignored his demand to employ teachers awaiting confirmation past 12 years in Urdu medium Government Muslim Higher Secondary School in Vellore town, Prof. Jawahirullah and his cadres today courted arrest in the town.
Since there was no response from the State Govt. to the ultimatum issued by TMMK last month that it will be compelled to launch a peaceful picketing programme before the School if the long-pending demand for the appointment of Urdu teachers in the Govt. Muslim Higher Secondary School, the TMMK cadres, under the leadership of Prof. Jawahirullah, picketed before the school on 2nd February and courted arrest. More than one thousand members of the organization were arrested and put in a marriage hall. Those who were detained, apart from Dr. Jawahirullah, included Aejaz Ahmed, Secretary of the Vellore District unit of TMMK and other office-bearers of the local unit of TMMK and Haji S.M. Pasha, President of Tamilnadu Backward Dekkani Muslim Association, which extended its moral support to the demonstrators. The detainees were let off later in the evening.
Addressing the demonstrators and the media persons, Prof. Jawahirullah said that the State DMK Government is an integral part of the UPA Govt. of India, which has accepted the Sachar Committee Report to accede to the just and reasonable demand of the Urdu-speaking linguistic minority. If the state government fails to implement the report TMMK will launch a state wide agitation.
The cause for the aforesaid agitation was the failure by the State Education Department to fill the vacancies of teachers for the Urdu Section since more than a decade, despite repeated requests and reminder by the School’s Parent-Teachers Association, the Association of Urdu Teachers and several other lovers of Urdu.
In a press statement released on the occasion by its president, the Tamilnadu Backward Dekkani Muslims Association – a body registered under the Societies Registration Act – said that the Association is joining the TMMK in its just and reasonable programme of picketing before the Urdu Medium Govt. Muslim High School in Vellore because of the indifferent attitude of the State Government and the step-motherly treatment meted out by it towards Urdu, as evidenced by its failure to appoint Urdu teachers in that Urdu school, despite repeated requests and reminders. The Association has the least hesitation to intensify the agitation in case the Government refuses to pay heed to the pathetic plea and legitimate demand of Urdu lovers in general and the Urdu students of the school and their parents and guardians in particular.