Disempowering Muslims and other minorities

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in 2018: "The government of India is leaving no stone unturned in empowering the Muslim youth." "We want them to have the Quran in one hand and a computer in the other." After four years of this message, Union Minister for Minority Affairs Smriti Irani told Parliament on December 8 that the central government has decided to end the Maulana Azad National Fellowship (MANF). This unjust decision will hamper the higher education of hundreds of students belonging to six notified minority communities, including Muslims, Buddhists, Christians, Jains, Parsis, and Sikhs.

The MANF was started during the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government, led by Manmohan Singh, to implement the Sachar Committee's recommendations of 2006. The MANF was instrumental in providing financial assistance to economically weak students pursuing MPhil and PhD.

Also Read — The insidiousness of scrapping Maulana Azad National Fellowship

The government's decision to end the fellowship named after India's first education minister, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, sparked a new debate in the academic and political arenas about the intent behind the move. The opinion is divided. Is the objective to create obstacles to higher education for marginalised minority communities or part of the Sangh playbook to make freedom fighters inconsequential? The decision could open the door to scrapping fellowships for other marginalised groups, such as Other Backward Castes (OBCs) and Scheduled Castes (SC), in the future.

Academics worry that ending the scholarship will make it hard for minorities, especially Muslims, to go to universities. After the government's unfair announcement, the former chairman of the UGC, Sukhadeo Thorat, said he was worried about the future of Indian Muslim students. According to Thorat, Muslims have the lowest gross enrolment ratio (GER), at 16 per cent, in higher education institutions among all the communities in the country, as compared to the national average of 26.3 per cent.

The government's move is also seen as the first step towards cutting scholarships for marginalised sections of society. The government began it with MANF because it is for minority communities. Amidst a strong wave of saffron politics, no one will speak for them. This will set a new precedent. The government might use the precedent to cut financial assistance to other marginalised communities.

Although Maulana was the founder of the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology (Kharagpur) and other premier academies, including the Sangeet Natak Akademi, etc., Azad's family had complained that, at a programme of the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR), a statue of Maulana Azad was removed. His books, donated by his family, were lying in the dust. Azad was a founding member of the council.

It showed persistent attempts are being made to diminish the role of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, the freedom fighter and its first education minister. With this latest move, the ultra-nationalist saffron government is trying to make inconsequential Maulana's fight for freedom and his work to promote higher education.

The discontinuation of fellowship also evidently proved that the BJP's affection towards Pasmanda (marginalised) Muslims is merely an eyewash. The Modi government ended the MANF suddenly, even though it was instrumental for Muslims and other minorities, especially Pasmandas, to go to universities and other institutions.

Irani said the scheme was being discontinued because it "overlaps with other scholarships." This is an absurd excuse. If there are anomalies, the government must remove them. But the government stopped the scholarship altogether.

To avoid issues of overlapping, why does the government not consider registering applicants with their Aadhar number or PAN number? Students are not restricted to applying for many fellowships or scholarships at a time. Students can only use the benefits of one fellowship at a time, though.

The decision made by the Modi government will affect Muslim, Christian, and Sikh students who are not from Other Backward Castes (OBCs) in some states of India.

The Modi government hits several birds with one stone by discontinuing the MANF. It sent a strong message to its core voters, demanding that the pro-Hindutva government stop providing financial aid to Muslims and other minorities. Muslims were the primary beneficiaries of the scheme.

The government targeted the fellowship named after the person who was among those not in their good books. Along with saving the exchequer, the government also paves the way for future scholarship cuts.

(Azad Rizvi is a Lucknow-based journalist)

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author's own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH.