Why do you want to keep them in a hothouse Mr Najeeb Jung?
Jamia Millia Islamia
University vice-chancellor Najeeb Jung announced on November 22 that all
undergraduates except those studying technical education courses and dentistry
will be forced to
study Urdu from the coming academic session.
"Urdu will serve as a
Modern Indian Language and the students' score in the subject will be added to
their final assessment. Our students may not become Urdu experts, but the course
will enable them to read and write basic Urdu,"
Najeeb Jung said.
The announcement was made
on the premise that Jamia Millia Islamia is a Muslim minority institution and
hence its students ought to learn Urdu with Arabic/Persian script.
I have great regard for
Urdu poetry, particularly Ghalib and do appreciate what the Ministry of Human
Resource Development is doing to promote the dying language a la National
Council for Promotion of Urdu Language. What I oppose is the wanton use of force
by which the Central university vice-chancellor wants to impose an alien script
on the university students, many of whom are not Muslims.
Jamia currently has a Urdu
language paper of one-year duration and general English for two years. But their
marks were not being added to the total percentage at the end of the year. Under
the new system, “to ensure these subjects are taken seriously” both papers will
be given a weightage of 100 marks each and will be counted in the final
percentage.
Now let us come to facts.
Jamia was declared a Muslim minority institution on February 22, 2012 by the
National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions, a body created in
2004 by an Act of Parliament.
The Commission's
declaration, which the government is reluctant to challenge in a court of law,
entitles Jamia to reserve up to 50 per cent of its seats for Muslim candidates
and at the same time ignore reservations for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes
and the Other Backward Classes.
This status is not being
enjoyed even by the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) despite being an older, more
puritan and a much more impressive Central university than the relatively novice
Jamia Millia – and its all because of the principles laid down in the famous
Azeez Basha case, an off-shoot of which is still lingering in the Supreme
Court of India.
The crucible test of
whether an institution is a minority institution or not has been spelt out in
the
Azeez Basha case ;
Article 30 (1) of the
Constitution says : All minorities, whether based on religion or language, shall
have the right to establish and administer educational institutions of their
choice.
In Azeez Basha case the
Supreme Court said : “The words establish and administer in Art. 30 (1) must be
read conjunctively, that is, Art. 30 (1) postulates that a religious community
will have the right to establish and administer educational institutions of
their choice, meaning thereby, that where a religious minority establishes an
educational institution it will have the right to administer it, but not
otherwise. The word establish for the purpose of the Article means bring into
existence educational institutions including universities.”
Go through the history of
Jamia Millia and one will at once understand that its case is quite akin to AMU,
thereby meaning that it couldn’t have otherwise got what the National Commission
for Minority Educational Institutions awarded it with a blatant stroke of pen.
The Commission panel
headed by Justice M.S.A. Siddiqui said: “We hold that the Muslim community
established this university and managed it all through. It never lost its
identity. We declare it as a minority educational institution covered under
Article 30 of the Constitution.”
Will somebody stand up and
say something?
I personally feel that the
higher education is above caste, creed and religious considerations and that a
university should be open to all. By restricting or secluding or confining a
caste of students to a HOTHOUSE you tend to stunt their growth.
