Centre may set up three more minority varsities

The Minority Affairs Ministry is working on a proposal to set up three universities for the minorities. Though it might take time considering the constitutional issues, Minority Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid said his ministry was working on the proposal seriously.

During an interaction with reporters here at his residence on Friday, Khurshid said his ministry had already identified land for the project with the help of Wakf Board, in Mysore, Kishanganj and Ajmer, but “a lot of constitutional issues need to be settled before the proposal for minority university can be settled”.

In the Constitution “we do not have provisions for minority universities,” Khurshid said. He gave the example of an Allahabad High Court judgement which ruled a few years back that Aligarh Muslim University was not a minority educational institution.

“While we work on the proposal, the issue needs to be seen in constitutional terms,” he cautiously added. A rather candid Khurshid said that “the Government needs to careful before implementing the proposal. If such decisions are challenged in the court of law, it will be difficult for the judiciary to defend the decisions.”

He added, “We have asked the Law Ministry to look into the matter.”

On other issues like, if there would be something more beyond the Prime Minister’s 15-
point programme during his tenure, he said, “I have to settle down first and then see what else we can add to that.”

He hinted that his ministry would not mind looking into a fresh proposal to explore the scope of reservations for socio-economically backward Muslims “The socio-economically backward Muslims and other religious minorities should get the benefits of reservation according to already established models for benefits available for SC/STs or OBCs,” he remarked.

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