Former Advocate General of Uttar Pradesh, S.M.A. Kazmi said that origin of Minority Rights lies with Sir Syed Ahmad Khan and the Aligarh Movement. He pointed out that Sir Syed was the first person who awakened Muslims through education for their rights. He was participating in a symposium on Human Rights in India held at Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh on March 28.
Kazmi said that Sir Syed placed example of secularism by establishing MAO College. He urged students to acquire excellence in their fields because it is the first condition of success. He said that the time has come when we must concentrate on education and development. He was delivering Chief Guest address on ‘Minority Rights in India’ held by Club for Short Evening Courses of General Education Centre, AMU, Aligarh.
Kazmi said that we should think in terms of the community and work hard to get success. He lauded the efforts of the Vice-Chancellor in promoting education among the most deprived class of people in remote areas of the nation such as Murshidabad and Mallapuram.
Earlier, Coordinator of GEC, Dr. Shakeel Samdani welcomed guests and other participants. He said that there is a wide gap between constitutional minority rights and practices by administration. He said that for the sake of the nation the gap should be filled up. He demanded that the Central Government should bring legislation to amend AMU Act and declare AMU as a Minority Institution.
Inaugurating the symposium, AMU Vice-Chancellor, Prof. P.K. Abdul Azis said, “I am proud to be a citizen of this country because our Constitution gives us equal rights and Articles 29 and 30 provide us opportunity to establish and administer our educational institutions.”
He pointed out that by educating ourselves we can share the fruits of progress and development. He cited the example of Kerala where the rate of literacy is 100 per cent. He said that it is my dream that all educationally backward areas of the country may turn into (ones having) 100 per cent literacy. He said that AMU Centre at Murshidabad and Mallapuram have become functional.
Prof. Azis announced that in future AMU centres will be established outside the country. Prof. P.K. Abdul Azis congratulated the organisers for organising a symposium on minorities on the death anniversary of Sir Syed Ahmed Khan.
Presiding over the symposium, former Dean of Law Faculty, Prof. M. Zakaria Siddiqui pointed out that the word ‘minority’ comes from sociology whereas the word ‘rights’ belongs to law stream. He said that Constitution framers had the responsibility to combine both the society and the law. He said that it means welfare of society with justice. He appreciated the efforts of Vice-Chancellor in establishing AMU centres and appealed that all people should extend their corporation to it.
In his keynote address, Dr. Mohibul Haque of Department of Political Science discussed group minority rights in national and international perspective and said that in democracy, group identity is very important. He said that Articles 29 and 30 were incorporated in the Constitution to save the group identity. He said that it is very unfortunate that the word ‘minority’ has not been defined yet which has resulted in the confusion among judiciary.
Dr. Waseem Ali and Dr. Nafees Ahmad of Department of Law also expressed their views. Students of the Law Faculty, Baharul Islam and Ghulam Akhtar also presented their papers, which were widely appreciated.
In the end, a resolution was adopted to declare AMU as minority institution through legislation and get the recommendations of Sachar Committee and Rangnath Mishra Commission implemented.
The symposium was conducted by the Secretary of the Club, Mansoor Ilahi. Organising Secretary Faisal Abbasi and his team worked hard to make the symposium a grand success.