NEW DELHI: Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram has attacked the Modi-led Indian government for discontinuing the Maulana Azad National Fellowship, saying that the government is on an “overdrive” to make life more difficult for students from minority communities.
P Chidambaram in a written reply in Lok Sabha said earlier this week, Minority Affairs Minister Smriti Irani had said, “As the Maulana Azad National Fellowship (MANF) Scheme overlaps with various fellowship schemes for higher education, the Government has decided to discontinue the MANF Scheme from 2022-23.”
In a series of tweets, Chidambaram said, “The Government’s excuse for scrapping the Maulana Azad National Fellowship and the subsidy for education loans to study abroad to minority students is grossly irrational and arbitrary.”
Even admitting that there are “overlapping” schemes, is the fellowship and subsidy to minority students the only schemes that overlap with another scheme, the former Indian minister asked.
The Government is on overdrive to make life more difficult for minority students, he added.
“Government is openly displaying its anti-minority policy as if it was a badge of honour. Shame,” the Congress leader said on Twitter.
