Eight Opposition parties, including the Congress, the Trinamool Congress and the left on Friday joined hands to corner the Government over its alleged “sinister” move to “strip” Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) and Jamila Millia Islamia (JMI) University of their minority status and slammed Attorney General Mukul Rohtagi on the issue.
The MPs also declared that they will launch a signature campaign, approach President Pranab Mukherjee on the issue and will also raise the matter in Parliament in the upcoming Budget session to curtail the Centre’s “unholy agenda”. A group of Muslim organisations too accused the National Democratic Alliance Government of raking up the minority status of the two institutions for gains in West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh polls and sought “immediate” reversal of its position.
In a joint statement, MPs from Congress, Trinamool Congress, JD(U), RJD, NCP, CPI, CPI(M) and AAP, said that they “strongly condemn” and express their displeasure and deep concern against the “nasty” move of the central government to “strip” AMU and JMI of their minority status. The MPs also condemned the statement of Rohtagi for his view that the two institutions are not minority institutions.
“We condemn the statement of the Attorney General of India, who has blatantly tried to outrage the rich tradition of Ganga Jamuni Tehzeeb by mentioning before the Supreme Court that these two institutions are not minority institutions,” the MPs said.
The signatories to the joint statement are Pramod Tiwari (Congress), K C Tyagi (JD-U), Sukhendu Sekhar Roy (Trinamool Congress), D P Tripathi (NCP), D Raja (CPI), Jay Prakash Yadav (RJD), Bhagwant Mann (AAP) and Ritabrata Banerjee (CPI-M), according to a press release issued by Tyagi.
The Attorney General has told the Government that Delhi-based Jamia Milia Islamia is not a minority institution as it was created by an Act of Parliament, days after he told the Supreme Court that the legislature never intended the AMU to be a minority institution.
The MPs alleged that Rohtagi tried to “undermine” the apex body of democratic India by making a “flimsy” claim that the legislature never intended AMU and JMI to be minority institutions. The Parliamentarians said that they believe that this is a “sinister move” to promote an “unholy agenda” and “dilute” the special character of these two premier seats of learning.
The Students Islamic Organisation (SIO) said the entire episode looks like an attempt to polarise votes ahead of West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh assembly polls. “This move is aimed at creating division. There also seems to be an attempt being made to make this a Dalit versus Muslims issue and that too at a time when a Dalit student has committed suicide,” said Saleem Engineer, general secretary of Jamaat-e-Islami-Hind.