New Delhi: All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) and MP Badruddin Ajmal said that he has protested in Parliament against the Centre's decision of scraping pre-matric scholarship for minority students, the Maulana Azad National Fellowship (MANF).
Speaking to ETV Bharat, Badruddin Ajmal said that "since the pre-matric scholarship and Maulana Azad National Fellowship were abolished by the central government, there has been resentment and frustration among the students, including the minority community. At the same time, this issue is also being raised in Parliament"
"When Narendra Modi became PM he said he wants to see Muslim students have Quran in one hand and laptops in the other, but now there are even scraping the earlier scholarship as well. If the government will not promote students in the field of education, then in what field will it promote them? If they are not given education, these children may choose the wrong path, so I demand that these schemes should be restored as soon as possible.", he added.
The Union Ministry of Minority Affairs has scrapped the Maulana Azad Fellowship for minority students pursuing higher education as well as a pre-matric scholarship for students between Class 1 and Class 8. Union minister of Minority Affairs Smriti Irani has said that the MANF scheme overlaps with various other fellowship schemes for higher education.
