SFI Himachal protest against the closure of the Maulana Azad National Fellowship by the central government

Today, on the call of All India Committee, SFI protested at Pink Patel Chowk of Himachal Pradesh University. This demonstration was done in protest against the closure of the Maulana Azad National Fellowship by the central government. Recently, Minister of Minorities Department, Smriti Irani said in Parliament that the Maulana Azad National Fellowship is overlapping with other fellowships given by the government, so the government has decided to discontinue it. As an example in his statement, he pointed out that Muslims have OBC status in some states where this fellowship overlaps.
Protests were held by students across the country to protest against this. To suppress these demonstrations, the government also adopted a repressive policy. That is why SFI demonstrated in support of those students and against this anti-student decision of the Central Government.
Significantly, this fellowship is given to those students doing research work from 6 minority communities {Muslim, Jain, Buddhist, Parsi, Christian, Sikh} whose annual income is less than 6 lakhs. This fellowship was implemented in 2009 on the basis of the recommendations of the Sachar Committee formed in 2005. Its purpose was to help students from minority communities in higher education on religious grounds.
University SFI unit secretariat member Shahbaz Khan said that the statement made by Smriti Irani in Parliament is basically baseless. The government cannot end the fellowship of the remaining 5 communities because of one community. This fellowship used to act as a backbone for those students doing research, but instead of solving the problems present in it, the government is turning its hands behind, which shows the intention of this government towards education. SFI All India Committee member Sarita said that since 2014, the NDA government at the Center is constantly trying to keep education away from the poor and restrict it to the rich. This government systematically abolished the pre-matric scholarship and then reduced the SC/ST scholarship. Now abolishing the Maulana Azad National Fellowship shows the intention of this government and the new education policy is also an example of this.
Sarita also said that these attacks on education will not stop here, rather the intention of this government is to sell education to capitalists and make students consumers. We have seen how the student is tortured when he protests. There is only one solution to this problem that students across the country will have to mobilize and agitate so that in future any government will think hundred times before making anti-student policies.
SFI believes that 6% of the country’s GDP should be spent on education, only then we will be able to reach education equally to every section of the society. But today we are seeing that the government is trying to shirk from its responsibility. This is a threat to the poor section of the society. Education is not an object to be weighed in the scales of accounts, but the effort of the government should be to make more and more students reach higher education and help in research.
SFI has always been agitating against the anti-student policies of the governments as the voice of the students and will continue this movement across the country till this Tughlaqi decree issued by the government is withdrawn.