Scheme to fund Dalit students’ foreign education announced

At an event at AAP headquarters on Saturday, Kejriwal said the scheme was to honour Babasaheb Ambedkar and a “powerful response to BJP’s disrespect toward Babasaheb Ambedkar.”

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday announced the Dr Ambedkar Samman Yojana, which promises to cover the cost of education of Dalit students who choose to pursue higher education in top foreign universities. The scheme has been launched in the run up to the upcoming Delhi Assembly elections to take place early next year.

Delhi CM Atishi, AAP National convenor Arvind Kejriwal, Manish Sisodia and others during the announcement of Dr Ambedkar Samman Scholarship on Saturday. (Arvind Yadav/HT Photo)

At an event at AAP headquarters on Saturday, Kejriwal said the scheme was to honour Babasaheb Ambedkar and a “powerful response to BJP’s disrespect toward Babasaheb Ambedkar.”

“I don’t want any child from Dalit community to be deprived of higher education because of the shortage of funds. Under this scheme, any Dalit student who secures admission to any of the world’s top universities can proceed with their admission without worrying about finances. The Delhi government will cover all their expenses, including tuition fees, travel, and other costs,” Kejriwal said.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), slammed the decision and said that the AAP chief was misleading the Dalit youth and that the AAP government had launched a similar scheme in 2019 but no money was provided.

The AAP chief also cited the ”deeply offensive remarks” on BR Ambedkar made by Union home minister Amit Shah. BJP leaders said Kejriwal was distorting Amit Shah’s remarks to mislead the people ahead of the polls.

A total of 12 out of 70 assembly seats in Delhi are reserved for Dalits, all with the AAP currently.

Delhi chief minister Atishi, also at the event, said that for the past ten years, Kejriwal has consistently allocated 25% of the budget to education.

“Arvind Kejriwal has ensured that lack of money never comes in the way of anyone’s talent. Therefore, under the Dr Ambedkar Samman Scholarship, the AAP government will bear full cost of higher education of those talented children of the Dalit community, who will get admission in any top university abroad on the basis of their hard work and ability. This will prove to be a big step towards realising the dreams of Babasaheb,” Atishi said.

Delhi BJP chief Virendra Sachdeva said, “...scholarship by Arvind Kejriwal is a classic case of old wine in a new bottle. Kejriwal had similarly announced a scheme for higher education scholarships for Scheduled Caste students before the 2020 elections, and that scheme has remained stagnant ever since. Yet, Kejriwal has now reintroduced it with a new name. Arvind Kejriwal should explain why, under this 2020 scheme, only ₹25 lakh worth of scholarships have been distributed to date while the government spent nearly ₹5 crore on its promotion in 2020-21.”