Opposition MPs demanded that the pre-matric scholarship for minority students, the Maulana Azad National Fellowship (MANF), be restored without which the progress of the minority community will be left behind.
Several of the MPs who raised the issue were Muslim MPs, including BSP MP Danish Ali, AIUDF MP Badruddin Ajmal, as well as AIMIM MP Syed Imitiaz Jaleel.
Speaking during a discussion on the supplementary demands for grants, BSP MP Danish Ali said that discontinuing the grants will be detrimental for minority students. “Everyone needs to be taken along for the prosperity of the country. How can you leave minorities behind and prosper,” Ali asked.
The union ministry of minority affairs has scrapped the Maulana Azad Fellowship for minority students pursuing higher education as well as a pre-matric scholarship for students between Class 1 and Class 8. Union minister of minority affairs Smriti Irani has said that the MANF scheme overlaps with various other fellowship schemes for higher education.
“Several such schemes are being already implemented by the government and minority students are covered under them, hence the government has decided to discontinue the MANF Scheme from 2022-23,” Irani had said in a written reply.
AIMIM MP Syed Imitiaz Jaleel asked how will minority students study and progress if this fellowship is stopped, while Samajwadi Party member ST Hasan said the government should restart the scholarships. AIUDF president Badruddin Ajmal demanded that the budget be enhanced to provide for the scholarship.
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The Jawaharlal Nehru University Teachers’ Association has expressed dismay over discontinuation of the Maulana Azad National Fellowship for minority students and called it an attack on the values of “inclusivity and democracy” integral to the higher education system required in India.
“The JNU Teachers’ Association notes with deep dismay the media reports appearing on December 10, 2022, that the Ministry of Minority Affairs has decided to withdraw the Maulana Azad Fellowship (MAF), a five-year fellowship provided by the Centre in the form of financial assistance to six notified minority communities -- Muslims, Buddhists, Christians, Jains, Parsis and Sikhs, to pursue PhDs,” the JNUTA said in a statement.