By FIROZ BAKHT AHMED
NEW DELHI—The way the things have been churning out for Indian Muslims, like the excessive Hindu-Muslim diatribe and discontent, the closure of Maulana Azad Education Foundation scholarships and the Foundation itself, the communal cauldron of television debates and the latest that of kicking the Namazis on the roadside, are a few feelers that the community has felt disgruntled about.
The unfortunate sudden closure of Maulana Azad Education Foundation (MAEF) had hit the Muslim community’s aspirants for various scholarships, like a dagger. After this, whatever the assets are to be transferred to the Central Wakf Council, which will take on the administrative responsibility for the affected employees.
The way, the Namazis were kicked by the policemen, while praying on the road, didn’t go well in the eyes of law abiding people. True, conveying Namaz prayers on the road is un-Islamic as no Muslim is allowed to pray at a place like a thoroughfare, road, office, aeroplane, train etc because, in Islam, there’s no permission for Namaz at a place that disturbs the common passage. It is not allowed at a place where permission has not been taken or that if it’s not clean and “pak” (pure). At the same time, if the police would have offered a rose to those praying on the road telling them not to do the same as the act of kicking is unconstitutional and inhuman. Besides, as also happened in the case of Nupur, tool kits against India were spread globally, especially, Muslim countries, a similar anti-India jargon might start to defile and disparage India.
The MAEF launched after the name of freedom fighter and India’s first Education Minister Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, a Bharat Ratna, has now been locked by the Ministry of Education under the charge of Smriti Irani, owing to an abrupt decision on the part the present governance.
What’s ghastly is that on February 7, 2024, the Ministry of Minority Affairs issued a notice instructing the closure of the Maulana Azad Education Foundation ‘at the earliest.’ The notice does not provide, as of now, any reason behind the closure.
The MAEF, funded by the Ministry of Minorities Affairs, was set up for the upliftment of minority communities. To be the recipients of these schemes, one had to be of the six minority groups: Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, Parsis and Jains. Founded with the mission of promoting education among the luckless, hapless, left out and marginalised sections of society under the Societies Registration Act, 1860, on July 6, 1989, the Foundation has brought about various schemes for minorities.
The MAEF used to administer scholarships such as the Begum Hazrat Mahal National Scholarship for minority girl students. This scholarship, for pre-matric and post-matric girl students was in 2023 subsumed under the Pradhan Mantri Education Empowerment Scheme (PMEES) as part of the Ministry of Minority Affairs in 2023. To assist the deserving, it started the “Gharib Nawaz Employment Scheme” for minorities, sought to provide short-term job-oriented skill development courses as a way to increase employability by focusing on school dropouts and other minority youths.
What was an earlier shocking action in 2022 was that the union government cancelled two important scholarships granted to minority community members, which include the pre-matric scholarship and the Maulana Azad National Fellowship. The obdurate move left countless students unsupported sans education. The cancellation of the pre-matric scholarship, which provided a meagre sum of support to minority students from classes 1– 8, was justified by the Ministry as a move that was to bring the Ministry of Minority Affairs at par with the Ministry of Social Justice, as other pre-matric scholarships were only for classes 9-10.
Prior to this, it had been alleged that the books in “Gosha-e-Azad” (Azad Corner) at the ICCR (Indian Council for Cultural Relations) were being removed to an unknown destination. The moment this was brought to the author’s attention by a research scholar and an Urdu investigating journalist, he made a personal visit to “Gosha-e-Azad” and found that the accusation held water as some shelves were empty. He tried calling the ICCR Chairman, Vinay Sahasrabuddhe, but in vain. Maulana Azad had donated some 8,000 books of his personal collection to the ICCR. After the matter was reported in the media, the segregated books were restored.
Interestingly, the present government has a long history of opposing provisions for minorities. During 2017-18, about 1,15,000 girls were given scholarship under the “Begum Hazrat Mahal National Scholarship Scheme” that was started by MAEF.
In the 2022-23 Union Budget, there was a staggering reduction of over 99 % in the funds allocated to the MAEF. In contrast to the previous year’s budget for 2021-2022, where MAEF received Rs. 90 crore, the current budget allocated a mere 1 lakh!
Another report by a group of some whistleblowers has stated that nearly 50% of the fund allocated for minority educational programs have not been used. The usage of the funds designated for fee reimbursement scheme where despite an allocation of Rs. 305.8 crore for these specific purposes, a substantial sum of Rs 174.23 crore remained unutilized. Similarly, the Centre for Educational Development of Minorities, which is slated to provide coaching for competitive examinations, did not use more than half of its allocated funds.
Though MAEF had been on oxygen for a couple of years, yet it had survived but a sudden throttling of the minorities institution has been like the last nail in the coffin! Nation builders of the likes of Maulana Azad need a kiss of life!
(Firoz Bakht Ahmed is the former Chancellor of Maulana Azad National Urdu University, Hyderabad.)
