Kapil Sibal, Salman Khurshid in war of words over Jamia Milia’s status

Minority affairs minister Salman Khurshid and HRD minister Kapil Sibal are at loggerheads over Jamia Millia Islamia’s (JMI’s) minority status and it appears the prime minister will have to play judge.

Khurshid wants JMI declared a minority institution, so that the Delhi-based central university could reserve half the seats for Muslims, but Sibal is opposed to any such move.

Khurshid is livid that the mails exchanged by the two  on the issue made way to the media. “It is not fair for two government ministers to debate and disagree in public. We will engage in a dialogue,” he said, hinting at a leak by the HRD ministry.

Sibal has written to Khurshid that “each institution has a unique history and its character must be culled from that context in which it was set up and treated for the past 90 years. We must also be cognisant of the perceptions of the community but any position inconsistent with its present status might require more than taking a decision consistent with a certain perception that some members of the community espouse”.

He has also enclosed a note on the historical character of JMI and asked Khurshid to forward him “on the basis of data and historical facts, as to why the position so far taken has been inconsistent with reality”.

Khurshid has agreed. “Jamia has been a minority institution ever since its birth. We will continue this dialogue with the HRD ministry and try to convince it with historical facts,” he said.