By Mudassir Rizwan, TwoCircles.net
New Delhi: A national seminar on Maulana Abul Kalam Azad was organized by Hamara Samaj, Urdu Daily in Patna on February 23 on “Maulana Abul Kalam Azad: Vision for minorities in independent India”.
First Education Minister and Congress leader Maulana Abul Kalam Azad was born on November 11, 1888 in Mecca and died on February 22, 1958 in Delhi. He was also a renowned Islamic scholar, besides a political leader of the Indian independence movement.
Kapil Sibbal, Minister for IT & Communication Government, K Rahman Khan, Minister of Minority Affairs, JDU MP Shivanand Tiwari, Maulana Wali Rahmani, Mahboob Alai Qaisar, Pandit NK Sharma, Ram Jatan Sharma (Bihar Pradesh Congress Secretary) and others participated in the seminar.
Kapil Sibal said that if there is no justice in a country for all communities nothing can progress. He pointed out that many innocent individuals languish in jail, sometimes for 10-15 years, only to be released later. Without a sense of justice a community cannot move ahead, he added. He also urged the audience to introspect and correct ourselves before accusing anyone for our failure as we cannot progress as a nation unless all of us progress.
Maulana Wali Rehmani and Kapil Sibal
Literacy is lower amongst minority children he pointed out and we need to work towards educating them. America has developed today, he said, because they have higher centers of education. There are scholarships schemes particularly for minorities, but often they are not properly utilized. He urged the community members to come forward and seek these not as some kind of favor, but as rights enshrined for the citizens of this country.
Minority Affairs Minister K Rehman Khan that it’s been 56 years sicne Maulana Azad departed, and we only remember him on some occasions or during programmes. He urged the audience to take inspirations from the life and philosophy of Maulana Abdul Kalama Azad and achieve what we have not been able to in last 60 years. He pointed out that Azad used to say that Muslim community feel as minority and that is why a sense of victimhood as we are scared of majority, but we should not feel that we are minority and be afraid of anyone. He also expressed his displeasure that Maulana Azad did not get his dues as much as he deserved despite being Education Minister for 11 years.
K Rehman Khan during seminar
He too urged the community leaders to come forward as Muslims in this country are very backward educationally. He also appreciated the work of Maulana Rahmani who started Rehman30 that produced result. He urged the community members to get walk with the pace of the world and seek and fight for their rights if they are not getting it.
He agreed that many of the schemes for the minorities do not reach the needy people and hence urged the NGOs working amongst Muslim communities to come forward. He reminded the minority community members that as 15% of population, they have their rights on 15% of resources too.
Maulana Wali Rahmani reminded the audience that India used to be a gold producing bird and for us to reach same heights, we now need to excel and do well in education. He appreciated the work of Sibal, who as HRD Minister earlier passed inclusive laws, but we have to work to make those successful.