Delhi Muslims vent their anger: Why did Kejriwal want Urdu school running in Eidgah to be closed down?, they ask

The Urdu school

By Our Representative
A hostile statement made by the Aam Admi Party (AAP) lawyer, in a proceeding relating to allotment of land and building to a minority Urdu medium institution, does not appear to have gone down well amongst the Muslims of Delhi. A large section this correspondent interacted with asked whether AAP is willing to deliver its promises magnanimously made by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.
During the last elections, Muslims had overwhelmingly voted the AAP to power making many of the Congress stalwarts like Harun Yusuf, Chaudhary Mateen, Asif Mohammed Khan, Hasan Ahmed and Shoeb Iqbal bite the dust in the hope of good governance. Within two years, they have begun to curse AAP.
A Public Interest Litigation by social activist Firoz Bakht Ahmed, relating to the allotment to a piece of land and building to the Muslim minority Qaumi Senior Secondary School, seems to have become the bone of contention. The Qaumi Senior Secondary School was demolished during the Emergency on June 30, 1976 in the wake of massive demolitions and Sanjay Gandhi-sponsored sterilization drive.
Then Delhi authorities, who included Jagmohan, lieutenant governor, Rukhsana Sultana Singh, a Sanjay Gandhi friend, and Dr Tamta, then Delhi Development Authority commissioner, promised that a highly impressive school building would come up as the place was required for “Janata flats”. It is 41 years since then, not a single brick has been laid.

The Eidgah

During the course of hearing, the counsel for the Delhi government suggested that the school could be closed down and the children might be admitted to alternate schools of the municipal corporation. The word spread like wild fire causing discontentment among Muslims.
Atyab Siddiqui states, “Muslims who think that Kejriwal is their messiah, must now come out of slumber and realize that he is a wolf in sheep’s clothing for them.” He laments the fact that owing to the u-turn by Kejriwal, regarding the promises for better education to Muslims and the uplift of Urdu, almost 1,500 posts in Delhi’s Urdu medium schools would lapse.
The school was constructed during the post Partition phase in 1948, using funds arranged by Muslims, who had decided to stay back in rather than choosing to go to Pakistan.
According to Abdul Malik Qureshi, manager of Qaumi School and also its ex-student, it was in fact outrageous on the part of Kejriwal to have asked for the closure of the poor children’s school, as he had personally promised him that he would give land just outside the Eidgah boundary .
Ahmed says, in record time, AAP has degenerated into a rank political broker and dealer like any other political party having all kinds of atrocities and vicious leaders and corrupt MLAs. He adds, many people told him that they made lifetime mistake by joining the AAP movement meant to promote honesty in politics. Ahmed joined AAP in 2014 and rose to become one of its spokesperson.
"Muslims of Delhi are very upset with Kejriwal as he wanted to close Qaumi Senior Secondary School for the poor Muslim students of Bara Hindu Rao. He also stopped the Delhi Transport Corporation buses which catered from Old Delhi Railway Station to Okhla. Mostly girls students and women working in Jamia and on that route, are also cursing him," says Khalida Faizi who lives in Jama Masjid area and works as a clerk in Jamia Millia Islamia.

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