Aligarh Muslim University, Jamia Milia Islamia deny dalits, OBCs quotas, BJP says
New Delhi: he BJP on Monday whipped out the “dalit-OBC card” to counter the criticism from Muslim scholars and clergy over denial of “minority status” to Jamia Milia Islamia University and Aligarh Muslim University.
Amid growing controversy, social justice minister Thaawarchand Gehlot congratulated wrote to HRD minister Smriti Irani on Monday, reacting to for her stand in the case of the two universities seeking minority tag. “I extend my heartfelt congratulation to you for the clarification that Jamia and AMU do not have minority status but are central universities,” Gehlot wrote to Irani on Monday.
Gehlot alleged these universities were using their minority status to refuse constitutionally-mandated reservations to SCs, STs and OBCs. He told Irani that her “praiseworthy step” would help in the creation of an inclusive society.
The sudden aggression from the BJP minister, in charge of welfare of backward classes, over minority universities appears to be a political move, to provide the saffron party with a tool for countermobilization in the face of criticism from the minority community. After getting the minority tag, Jamia, in keeping with the legal provisions, disbanded the quotas for dalits and backwards, leading to protests from activists including, the National Commission for SCs.
As Gehlot’s letter shows, BJP would prefer to paint ‘minority status’ as depriving dalits and OBCs of quotas in higher education, calculating that it would polarise the backward classes in favour of the HRD ministry’s stance — ditto if rivals like Congress jump into the debate to target the saffron party of Hindutva agenda in the case of the two universities.
The bid to pit dalit-OBCs against minorities stems from a saffron policy to make “aggressive secularism” counter-productive by defining it as antagonistic to the largest chunk of Hindus. Since the ‘secular’ bloc includes Mandal and dalit outfits — RJD, JD(U) and BSP — the move appears designed to find a long-term antidote to electoral defeats like in Bihar.
Source: The Time of India
