AMU plays into nitish’s hands

PATNA: Wooing the minorities is a key component of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s realpolitik. Yielding under the pressure, the Nitish cabinet has given its nod to the proposal for allotting 224.02 acres of contiguous land for an off-campus branch of the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) in Kishanganj district. Earlier, the AMU authorities had refused to accept 243 acres offered by the Bihar government on the plea that they were situated at three different places, waterlogged and encroached upon. The allotment has allowed Nitish to score over his political rival, the Congress, on the issue.

It was the Congress-led UPA government that announced to open off-campus centre of AMU in Bihar in 2008. Then nobody had imagined it would soon acquire political colour in the Seemanchal (northeast Bihar) region. Neither the UPA nor the JD(U) expected widespread agitations for or against establishing this institution in one of Bihar’s most backward areas.

Initially the central government was in favour of establishing the university at Katihar, a small district headquarters town politically known at one time for being the parliamentary constituency of NCP heavyweight Tariq Anwar who has accused Nitish repeatedly of playing politics and misleading AMU authorities. Tariq, at present a Rajya Sabha member, had represented Katihar four times in the Lok Sabha. It was he who had lobbied with the HRD ministry and AMU to open the Katihar campus. The area has a sizeable Muslim population and is well connected with the National Highway. Besides, it has also a divisional railway headquarters.

M A A Fatmi, an AMU alumnus who was the minister of state for HRD in UPA I, also played an important role in bringing the AMU to Bihar. Immediately realising the political dividends, Nitish offered land in Muslim-dominated Kishanganj and tried his best to corner this project to impress the minorities who constitute 16 per cent of the state’s population.

The AMU project has a long history of dispute behind it. Nitish’s ally in the government, the BJP, was not very comfortable with this decision. The issue had become so emotive that last year, ABVP announced Bihar Bandh. Congress MP of Kishanganj, Maulana Israr-ul-Haque, supported the movement for establishing the university.

As per the decision of the Union government, AMU centres are to come up in seven states. With the exception of Maharashtra where a similar tussle over location has occurred, where the land is yet to be officially handed over to the AMU authorities, in all other states work is in progress.