India's Aligarh Muslim University has also fallen prey to the BJP's extremist policies.
Muslim universities in India are also under the influence of Modi's poisonous propaganda. The last 10 years of Modi's rule have encompassed politics of sectarianism and hatred, which has also engulfed the universities.
Aligarh Muslim University falls prey to #BJP extremism! Under #Modi's rule, universities suffer from sectarianism and hatred, hindering academic freedom & communal harmony.#SamaaTV pic.twitter.com/HkPdxINcdU
— SAMAA TV (@SAMAATV) April 27, 2024
The century-old Aligarh Muslim University has been a victim of Bharatiya Janata Party's sectarian politics for the past five years, with several Muslim-majority universities under Modi's rule suffering violence and attacks. Despite criticism over Modi's anti-Muslim communal speech last week, he repeated his anti-Muslim rhetoric while campaigning for Aligarh MP Satish Gautam on Monday.
A PhD scholar says, "In recent years, the conflicts in Aligarh University have been politicized, while the BJP's political narrative is focused on extremism rather than employment."
Students say that education has been exploited by the BJP to an extent no other party has done. Applications for limited vacancies are increasing, but there are no jobs. The posts of primary teachers have not been advertised for last five years. Educated youth are not getting employment, and while the posts that do come up, the BJP appoints its own people to them.
"On the one hand, the youth are not given employment, while on the other hand, communal thinking is encouraged by the BJP."
After the incidents of paper leaks for government posts in Uttar Pradesh, seats are given to favoured people, but the government is not taking notice.
Ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP strongly objected to hanging a picture of Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah on the walls of the student union office. In November 2018, BJP workers alleged that Aligarh University was run on Taliban ideology.
The BJP also expressed serious reservations about performing the funeral prayer of a Muslim student. Other BJP leaders also termed the university a hub of terrorists following students organizing a march in support of Palestine.
In 2019, students protesting against the Citizenship Bill were lathi-charged and tortured after a police crackdown. Students have been booked for protesting the Citizenship Bill and jailed for speaking at the university. A mere protest by university students on the swearing-in of the Modi government for the second term was heavily criticized by the BJP workers.
Any protest by students in Aligarh Muslim University is made political and the students are called terrorists, but when the students of Banaras Hindu University protest, there is no such criticism. This is a question on being a minority, and a narrative is being created across the country.
Student union elections have been stalled since 2018 due to pressure from RSS and BJP cadres, attacks on educational institutions by Modi cadres, and funding cuts to central universities have accelerated that provide high education at low cost to students.
Since 2014, the budgets of Aligarh Muslim University and Jamia Millia Islami University have been reduced by 15%, while that of Banaras Hindu University has been increased from Rs669.51 crore to Rs1,303.01 crore.
The attack on educational institutions during the Modi era is a continuation of the thinking of Atal Bihari Vajpayee and RSS. If a student of Jamia or AMU qualifies for Union Public Service Commission, they call him jihadi. In the recent election campaign, the Modi government has attacked the Muslims in a new way and aggravated problems for them.
In India, since the Modi government assumed power, the minorities, especially Muslims, are being subjected to oppression, and educational institutions of the Muslims are being targeted, which is a reflection of the Hindutva ideology.
