Set up ministry of minority affairs

AGGRIEVED OVER quashing of the minority status of Aligarh Muslim University, its Old Boys? Association demanded setting up of a separate ministry of minority affairs to deal with problems of minorities.

AGGRIEVED OVER quashing of the minority status of Aligarh Muslim University, its Old Boys’ Association demanded setting up of a separate ministry of minority affairs to deal with problems of minorities.

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They demanded steps by the Union Government to remove anomalies in the AMU Act 1981 to provide minority status to the institution.

A meeting of the AMU Old Boys’ Association was held at Ahmad Hospital in this connection.

Senior physician and social activist Dr Aziz Ahmad said the minority community was grappling with numerous problems of educational and financial backwardness.

He said the AMU was brought into existence through a law, which is the only means of establishing the educational institution, and depriving the AMU of its minority status on the pretext that it was formed by an Act was “unreasonable”.

He said the preamble of the university stated it had been established to uplift the social and educational standards of the minorities, particularly Muslims.

However, doors of the university would remain open for members of other religions and castes as well.

Without naming any one, Dr Aziz Ahmad criticised parties for trying to politicise the issue.

He said leaders who were active members of the Dr Abdul Jalil Farid Movement to save the minority status of AMU had come to power in 1977, but they failed to take any initiative to grant minority status to the university.

He further said that non-Congress Governments led by HD Deve Gowda and Inder Kumar Gujral had also forgotten the university.

Presiding over the meeting, advocate Habib Ahmad shed light on various legal aspects of the university. He said the university should be declared a minority institution under Article 30 of the Constitution of India.

A resolution passed at the meeting said it had been decided that the Old Boys’ Association would support all steps taken by AMU students’ union to save the minority status of the institution.

Dr Ejazul Haq, Dr S Rehman, Abdullah Seraj, Naushad Ali Subzposh and Danish Ali Subzposh, along with others, participated in the meeting.