Opinion - Letters to the Editor   

Laudable ruling

The Allahabad High Court order quashing the law granting Aligarh Muslim University its minority status, and holding as illegal reservation of seats for Muslims in post-graduate courses is laudable for its commitment to constitutionalism. Secularism is one of the features contributing to the basic structure of the Constitution.

Taxpayers' money cannot be used for promoting the interests of one community at the cost of others. If AMU wants to promote the interests of Muslims through reservation, it should seek the revocation of its Central university status.

Shashank Krishna,
Bangalore

The percentage of Muslim students in medical, engineering, and management courses is abysmally low. This is largely due to poverty and their inability to get admission to schools from which most students of elite institutions such as the IITs are drawn. Hence positive discrimination in their favour at the college level is justified.

V.K. Tripathi,
New Delhi

Many of the socio-economic problems faced by Muslims today are linked to their educational backwardness. To bring the community into the mainstream, positive discrimination is a must.

Huma Hasan,
Aligarh, U.P.

AMU was founded for the educational uplift of Muslims. But even today, Muslims are among the educationally and economically most backward. Reservation is not against national integrity and secularism. It is only a means for the community to progress.

A.S.M. Soyeb,
Aligarh, U.P.

AMU has welcomed non-Muslims ever since it was established. Its first graduate was in fact a non-Muslim. Even today, it boasts of over 50 per cent non-Muslim students.

Saba Jamil,
Aligarh, U.P.

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