State News And Discussion - II

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Sonia's chamchaa Shekhar Gupta cannot stand anybody else appeasing muslims. Muslims are congress' baap-ki-jaagir according to him.

http://www.indianexpress.com/full_story....t_id=66789

<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Crossing the language barrier
After two attempts and much opposition, the Mulayam Singh government gets the go ahead for a Urdu University. But little public support, writes Atiq Khan

IN the wooing of minority votes, Urdu has become the language of love for the Mulayam Singh government. In his budget speech last year he announced 3,000 posts for Urdu teachers. This year he followed it up with the intention of reviving the Oriental College at Rampur, once a premier centre of Arabic teaching. And now the grand finale. A private bill on the Mohammad Ali Jauhar University was tabled in the UP Assembly on Thursday and passed the following day by a voice vote.

The university at Rampur will be named after Maulana Mohammad Ali Jauhar, one of the architects of the Khilafat movement of the 1920s.

The government has already tabled the bill on the university twice in the Vidhan Sabha which was later sent to Governor T.V. Rajeshwar. He in turn sent it for Presidential reference last year. This time the government decided to table a private university bill instead.

THE person who stands to gain most from this move is Urban Development and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Mohammad Azam Khan. In fact, more than the concept of the university, it was Khan’s insistence that he will be its pro-vice chancellor for life that had provoked the Opposition. Says Congress Legislature Party leader Pramod Tewari: ‘‘My party has no objection to the Urdu university but the idea of Khan becoming pro-vice chancellor for life is unacceptable.’’

The new bill has dropped Azam Khan’s name. Instead it says the chancellor of this university will be the head of the Maualan Ali Jauhar Trust or will be decided by the Trust from time to time. Incidentally, the Trust is headed by Khan.

Calling the Congress opposition to the university a ‘‘big mistake as the biggest demand of the Muslims was a Urdu university’’, Khan says: ‘‘ The Congress has no right to oppose the decision simply because apart from lip service to the Muslim cause it has not done anything for improving their educational status.’’

THE state government’s lip service to Urdu has not found many enthusiasts either. ‘‘‘Unless Urdu is linked with employment, an Urdu university and madarsa teaching have no meaning. These are political gimmicks,’’ says Iqtidar Husain Farooqui, a retired scientist from the National Botanical Research Institute (NBRI).

He’s not wrong. Take the government’s plan to appoint Urdu teachers. A year after it was announced, it is still to be issued by the state’s basic education department.

Says Naseem Iqtidar Khan, the lone woman member on the executive committee of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB): ‘‘First make the teaching of Urdu compulsory in schools, at least till class VIII before venturing on a university project. All steps to promote the language have existed only in government files.’’

POLITICS and Urdu is a mix that predates Mulayam’s government. It started in 1989 with the Congress making Urdu the second official language of UP through the UP State Language (Amendment) Act. But this elevated status brought no benefits to the Urdu speaking people. Then Mulayam in 1994 came up with a proposal for appointing 1,500 Urdu translators in government departments. About 1,000 posts of translators are still vacant as there were no applicants.

Says Dr M. Muzammil of the department of economics at Lucknow University, ‘‘Setting up a Urdu university is a sound move but too late in the day.’’<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->