Owaisi, Rijiju in social media tussle over Pre-Matric scholarships

Hyderabad: AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi and Union Minority Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju were on Wednesday engaged in a tiff on social media platform ‘X’ over Pre-Matric scholarship and other schemes for minority students welfare.

Responding to Owaisi’s criticism that the NDA government restricted scholarships to classes 9 and 10 even though dropouts among Muslims begin as early as class 5, Rijiju said pre-matric scholarship has been restricted only upto class IX and X, as Right To Education (RTE) Act makes it obligatory to provide free and compulsory elementary education for students of classes I to VIII.

The union minister also said the Maulana Azad National Fellowship scheme has been discontinued as it overlaps with similar schemes of other Ministries and Departments.

“Also, the UGC and CSIR Fellowship Schemes are open for candidates of all social categories and communities including minorities. Schemes like PMJVK, PM VIKAS are being implemented for maximum inclusivity and socio-economic upliftment,” Rijiju said.

Owaisi, however, alleged that the Right to Education Act is being used a “fig leaf” to restrict the Pre-Matric Scholarship which helps in reducing dropout rate. “The point of the Pre-Matric scholarship was to reduce dropout rates, which begin much earlier than class IX-X. This worked to reduce the financial burden on minority families. The RTE is only being used as a fig leaf. The Pre-Matric scholarship for other communities was also restricted by the Modi govt, no?”

On the Maulana Azad National Fellowship scheme being discontinued, he said the scheme was meant to help increase minority representation in scholarship and higher education “since minorities are underrepresented”.

The presence of an open category does not take away the need for the scheme, he claimed.

He also claimed that the Minority Affairs Ministry budget saw a major reduction in 2023-24 and has remained almost the same since then despite inflation.