Explaining that the central government’s move to abolish Moulana Azad Scholarship scheme is a part of its new education policy aimed at maintaining a stark gap of literacy between the poor and the well off people in the country, Dr.Ram Puniyani, a renowned historian said, “The BJP led NDA government’s move is a first step towards depriving the religious minorities, dalits, weaker class and economically backward sections from pursuing higher education.”
He was arguing over the central government’s move scrapping the Moulana Azad Fellowship Scheme on his channel on December 18 that provoked an outrage among the minorities especially the Muslims.
Terming the government’s move as hitting two birds with one stone, he said, “the BJP led central government is leaving no stone unturned in depriving the linguistic minorities from pursuing higher studies at one side while playing down the historic role of the Muslim leaders like Moulana Azad in freedom struggle on the other.”
After finding that the economic condition of the Muslim Minorities becme worse, he said, the UPA government introduced Moulana Azad Scholarship Scheme in 2006 believing that the education is the only way to address the economic challenges being faced by the religious minorities, such as Muslims, dalits, weaker class and economically backward sections.
“As the scholarship scheme was solely desiged to help students pursuing post graduation and primarily benefitting the Muslims as they are the biggest minority in the country, the abolishment of the same will surely hit the muslim minority first who are the primary beneficiaries of the scheme,” argued Dr.Puniyani.
Claiming that the central government move is a blatant attack on the Muslim community especially on those familes whose children are planning to go for higher studies, he said, the BJP led central government is taking no stone unturned since the begining to privent the community from developing in the field of economy and education.
“We already have many examples to prove the point. They first did it with people from Dalit Community like Rohit Vemula whose fellowship was stopped through challenging the same in court and later forced to commit suicide,” explained Dr.Puniyani.
