New Delhi: The Muslim Student Organisation (MSO), the largest outfit of Indian Muslim youth, has strongly condemned the CPI(M)-led LDF government of Kerala for the alteration of the student scholarships previously only meant for Muslims for their empowerment as recommended by the popular Sachar Committee. MSO president Shujaat Ali Qadri said that the revision of the ratio of the minority student scholarship by the LDF government is a sort of chicanery committed to wrest Kerala Muslims of certain government help.
The state government has altered the proportion of ‘merit-cum-means’ scholarships for needy and educationally disadvantaged minority community students. As per the revised ratio, the minority scholarship quota for Christians is 18.38%, Muslims (26.56%), Buddhists (0.01%), Jains (0.01) and Sikhs (0.01%). Earlier, the high court had in February struck down the 80:20 ratio for minority students. The LDF government has acted under the cover of this HC order.
Taking a dig at the LDF government, Qadri said, “A 2015 Kerala government order had allocated 80:20 distribution of the merit-cum-means scholarship for minority communities to Muslims and Latin Catholic Christians and Converted Christians respectively. Why has the present LDF government decided to implement the HC order reconstituting the ratio? It should rather challenge the HC order in SC and restore the previous system of scholarship distribution? If it doesn’t do so, it may become a precedent for other state governments to follow and the Muslims will suffer more.”
