AISA Protest against Scrapping of Maulana Aazad Fellowship

Students from AISA and other organisations protested in Delhi against the scrapping of Maulana Azad National Fellowship on 12 December. Ironically, they were assaulted and detained by police and taken to thana for exercising their right to protest.

The BJP has unleashed yet another attack on the minorities of the country by  dismantling a primary weapon of social mobility — education. AISA is demanding to restore the fellowship and called to fight back against this attack on education and minorities.

The Maulana Azad National Fellowship has been discontinued by the BJP Government, as declared by Smriti Irani's speech in the Parliament. MANF was an attempt to ensure financial security and assistance for the religious minorities of the country to assist them continue higher education. According to the Sachar Committee Recommendations of 2006, the government was advised to "provide different types of affirmative action to three main Muslim groups". MANF, launched in 2009 was a step towards incrementing access to education to minority students. Smriti Irani, in her speech has claimed that recipients of the scholarships have decreased over the last few years.

On the contrary AISA has asked Smriti Irani, when in June, several recipients of the MANF protested and asked reason for delay in scholarship, why was the government silent? Instead of doing away with anomalies and failures of implementation, the government has decided to do away with the policy itself. AISA condemns this move of scraping the fellowship and demand it's restoration.