AMU VC meets PM, seeks support on 'minority' status

A delegation from Aligarh Muslim University, led by Vice Chancellor Lt Gen Zameer Uddin Shah, today met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and sought the NDA government's support in restoring the varsity's 'minority' status, stating that this "would have a salutary effect on minorities who are agitated and apprehensive that their rights are being trampled upon".
Referring to the reported "illegal" establishment of the varsity's three off-campus centres in Kerala, West Bengal and Bihar, he asserted that they had been approved by "the highest policy making bodies of the university, the Government of India and the President of India".
Speaking to PTI after the nearly 40-minute meeting, Shah, who led the five-member delegation comprising some prominent members of the Muslim community, expressed "satisfaction" over the meeting with the Prime Minister.

The memorandum urges the NDA government to revert back to the original stand of previous UPA government of supporting the University in restoring its minority status.
"India is a secular country and the constitution confers upon the minorities a fundamental right under Article 31 to enjoy the right to establish and administer educational institutions of their choice," it said.
Underlining the fact that NDA's sympathetic handling of the issue would have a positive effect on Muslim youth and would "further bind them to the national mainstream", it noted that "AMU students have behaved in an exemplary manner and have not agitated over this issue".

This step of the NDA government "would have a very salutary effect on the minorities who are presently agitated and apprehensive that their rights are being trampled upon", it said.

It also recalled that BJP, when it was part of Janata Party under the leadership of Atal Bihari Vajpayee and L K Advani, had in its manifesto promised to "restore the minority character of the University".
The AMU Vice Chancellor told the Prime Minister, "We have full faith in your sagacity and your slogan 'Sab Ka Sath, Sab Ka Vikas'."
The delegation also discussed issues related to research and education, skill development, and Ganga rejuvenation, according to a statement from the Prime Minister's Office.

The issue of restoration of minority character of AMU is at present pending with the Supreme Court but what has triggered off the protests is the Centre's recent decision to reverse the UPA government's stand of supporting the university in the apex court on this issue.
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On the off-campus centres of the university, Shah raised the issue of "gross inadequate" funding, which put their existence in "jeopardy".
"Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD) feels the three centres are illegal. They have the sanction of the Government of India as well as the President. Then how can they be illegal?" he asked.

The Centre had sanctioned an amount of "Rs 447 crore" for these centres. Against this, the University has been given a meager amount of just Rs 130 crore, the memorandum said.
It also drew attention to the "inequity in funding" to AMU as compared to BHU, which is of equal size, and Jamia Millia, which is half its size.
In the revised Twelfth Plan, the BHU has been allotted an outlay of Rs 300 crore, Jamia Millia Rs 235 crore and the AMU just Rs 193 crore.
Noting that AMU had recently been judged sixth among top ten global institutions of higher learning in India, the memorandum said it was presently at the threshold of some outstanding researches in the spheres of "Environmental Studies" and through research on nano-fertilizers in the sphere of the "second Green Revolution".

It urged the Prime Minister to favourably consider the above issues so that the university continues to play its role in the urgent task of the nation building.
Shah had earlier this week claimed that HRD Minister Smriti Irani had in a meeting with Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy on January 9 said the AMU centres in Kerala, West Bengal and Bihar were illegally set up and will not be funded by her ministry.
"Chandy told me that the HRD Minister was adamant that the AMU centres were illegally set up and will not be funded by the HRD Ministry, despite being told that they had been approved by the highest policy making- bodies, AMU's Executive Council and Court, Government of India and the Visitor (President of India)," Shah had said.

He also said that on January 9, he had gone to meet Irani at the insistence of Chandy regarding the funding of an off-campus AMU centre in Kerala. But as the venue of the meeting was changed at the eleventh hour, he could not reach there on time.
Shah also told reporters that while he had met the Prime Minister twice, despite many attempts in nearly one and a half years, he would be meeting HRD minister Smriti Irani on March 10. He had met her first when Irani had taken over as the HRD minister.