By Omar Rashid
New Delhi: Seeking votes in a by-poll election in Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh chief minister Adityanath on November 9 tried to pitch the Supreme Court’s decision on the minority status of the Aligarh Muslim University to pit marginalised communities against Muslims. Twenty-four hours after the apex court overruled its judgment in a 1967 case that had become the basis of denying minority status to AMU, Adityanath brought up the question of caste-based reservations to people from the Dalit and tribal communities, and Other Backward Classes, in the central university.
Addressing a rally in Khair (an assembly segment in Aligarh district), Adityanath reiterated a long-standing demand of the Bharatiya Janata Party that AMU provide reservations in admission to members of the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes (OBC) communities. The central university has always been in the crosshairs of the Hindu right.
In 2018, Adityanath as well as the UP Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Commission had asked the university to explain why it did not provide reservation in admission to these communities. Adityanath had raised the issue of reservations to counter the opposition attack against his government on the issue of discrimination and atrocities faced by Dalits. Earlier this year, the BJP’s Member of Parliament from Aligarh Satish Gautam, speaking in parliament, demanded members of the SC, ST and OBC communities be provided reservations in AMU, arguing that the university was Union government-funded like the Banaras Hindu University. The BJP has consistently opposed AMU’s minority status.
Now, desperate to save his face in the upcoming bypolls, Adityanath referred to AMU’s legal battle to send the point home that marginalised Hindu communities were being discriminated against at the cost of Muslims.
“How is it possible that an institution that is thriving on India’s resources and is operating through the tax money of India’s people is not providing any reservation to people of the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and backward castes?” Adityanath asked in Khair.
This story was originally published in thewire.in. Read the full story here.