If there were no Muslims in the country, BJP would not have opened its account: Cong MP in LS

PTI, Aug 1, 2024, 7:27 PM IST

New Delhi: A Congress member Thursday accused the BJP of getting power by flaring anti-Muslim, anti-Dalit, anti-poor and anti-student sentiments, and claimed that if there were no Muslims in this country, the party that is ruling now could not have opened its account.

Participating in a debate on demands for grants for the Education Ministry, Mohammad Jawed said, “They should save education in the country. Just by removing the name of Mughals will not make any difference. Mughals were here for 330 years, they are not going to be removed just because you remove the name.”

The Kishanganj MP said Muslims have as much intelligence as anybody else. “…we can contribute as much as anybody else. I appeal you should not discriminate.”

He accused the government of pursuing discriminatory policies. “It is ruling by flaring anti-Muslim, anti-Dalit, anti-poor, anti-student sentiments. If there were no Muslims in this country, the BJP would not have opened an account,” he said.

Jawed also urged the education minister to restart the schemes for minorities students.

“I have demanded the government to restart schemes for minorities, and scholarships should be resumed. You gave one for UPSC, and in 2020, some people said it is ‘UPSC jihad’… Around four per cent Muslim candidates passed the exam while out population is 15 percent,” he said.

He said the following year, the percentage of Muslim students clearing the UPSC dropped to 3.6 percent, and then to 3.1 percent in the next year.

He also accused the government of “dismantling” the country’s education infrastructure. Jawed also mentioned the death of three students at a coaching centre in Delhi, and student suicide cases in the coaching hub of Kota.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Tejasvi Surya, meanwhile, lauded the union budget, and said it would empower the youth through education and skilling, and also hailed the government for bringing the National Education Policy (NEP).

As the House debated the demands for grants for the Education Ministry, pointed out at the shortage of teachers, and accused the government of not walking the talk on education.

He alleged the budgetary allocation for education has gone down from 3.36 per cent of the GDP during the UPA to 2.9 per cent now.

Counting the students and teachers in different institutions at different levels, the number of those involved in this sector is around 43 crore and the allocation comes down to less than Rs 200 per month for every individual, he claimed.

He also mentioned that there is a shortage of teachers across educational institutions. “How will you provide education? You know what happened in a coaching center in Delhi… What is happening in Kota? We are hearing about suicide cases every month.”

“Outside parliament, test paper are getting leaked, and inside Parliament, the roof is leaking… This is the Modi sarkar,” he said.

“The National Testing Agency (NTA) was created by the Modi government, and in seven years, there have been 70 paper leaks… The Education Minister says the integrity of the exam may be compromised. It is not just the integrity of the examination that has been compromised, but the integrity of the government has been compromised,” he said.

Tejasavi Surya, meanwhile, lauded the government for the provisions in the budget for youths, and said there has been significant development on the education front in the 10 years of the Modi-led government.

He said that due to the lack of quality education, the quality of human resources that the country produced over last so many years is painfully low and inadequate.

He also said that while Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi has accused the BJP and the government of being against Dalits, tribals and OBCs, it was Congress-led governments that did not implement the Mandal commission report for 10 years.

“If there is any party which is anti-SC, ST, OBC, it is the Congress,” he said.

Surya also said that the National Education Policy has addressed many challenges, and stressed that the emphasis on providing education in mother tongue will help many.