LUCKNOW: Amidst a race among political parties to lure Muslim voters, the government of BSP supremo Mayawati has decided to set up the Uttar Pradesh Minority Education Institution Authority to take care of the educational problems of the community.
However, the move has evoked no enthusiasm among the community leaders, while political opponents have, understandably, termed it a poll gimmick.
The six-member authority, headed by the principal secretary/ secretary Minority Welfare Department, will assist the state government in providing quality education to the minority community.
The authority will also have representation of higher, vocational, basic and madhyamik education departments.
It will also look into the complaints against the educational institutions and apprise the government of its findings, besides issuing No-Objection Certificates to minority institutions.
But, according to former Agra University vice-Chancellor Manzoor Ahmed, the authority would make sense only if instead of babus, those really interested in and devoted to education among people of the minority community could be its members.
“It is the bureaucracy, besides politicians, who have been responsible for the backwardness of the community in education,” he added.
All India Muslim Personal Law Board member Zafaryab Jilani told Express that the step was unsatisfactory, because of babudom, even though in the right direction.
He said the previous Mulayam Singh Yadav Government too had constituted a three-member committee for the minority education, but nothing happened.
He said the authority would have no power to implement its decision and the matter would end there. The power to investigate the complaints would encourage graft, he added.
Jilani said the authority could be useful if it was on the pattern of the Union Government’s Minority Educational Institution Commission Act-2004, which has enforcement power.
Retired professor Ahmed Sadiq said there were many in the community genuinely interested in education of its children, and some devoted in fields like health, who should be roped in while formulating any policy for the community’s educational problems.
“Take their views, discuss them thoroughly and take a decision. Review the implementation keeping them engaged in the process as well … Only then expect something fruitful in the matter,” he said.
He added, “Just imagine, if formal schools also had the Islamic teaching classes, what would have been the need to establish exclusive schools called madarsas? Today, those bringing in modern education in madarsas are being hailed as hero but it took so long for such initiatives.”