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For AMU students, BJP represents a bleak future for Muslims

Syed Firdaus Ashraf in Aligarh

Moin Khan's daily chore begins with hunting for jobs in newspaper advertisements, and ends with sending application letters to various companies.

A final year student of mechanical engineering, he is not alone in his quest. Along with him are hundreds of other students who are going through the same procedure at Aligarh Muslim University.

"Usually," says Moin, "Companies approach the university campus, but for the last three years not more than five companies have sent their representatives to interview us."

Moin, a resident of Ajmer in Rajasthan, joined AMU four years ago since it is one of the cheapest universities for Muslims in India.

The AMU hostel fee is just Rs 1,500 a year, and meals are available at a nominal price, which is one of the reasons that lower and middle class students from Bihar, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh throng the sprawling campus.

"Fees apart, a student can survive on between Rs 800 and 1,000 a month," says Moin.

For the last few months, however, the grim employment scenario is not the only worry of AMU students. The prospect of a Bharatiya Janata Party government coming to power at the Centre has added to the worry-lines on their forehead.

Compared to students from Jawaharlal Nehru University and the Banares Hindu University, AMU students feel they are being discriminated against.

A general feeling among the final-year students is that since the rise of the BJP on the political firmament, not a single "Marwari" company or other Indian industries have approached the AMU.

The number of companies that came for campus recruitments in 1992, the year Babri Masjid was demolished, was 20; in 1998, this figure had fallen to just five.

Says Anwar Ahmed, a final year student of civil engineering, "Not more than eight students have been selected from the AMU campus in the last five years."

There are a handful of students, however, who do not fear their future under a prospective BJP government. Says Nihal Ahmed, a management student, "The multinational companies never discriminate in terms of religion, caste and creed. So, I do not fear even if the BJP rules the country. If I am good I will get a job."

Agrees Salman Kureishy, training and placement officer, AMU, "It is wrong to say that AMU students don't get jobs because they are Muslims. There are so many Muslims who are in top jobs in MNCs and Indian companies. They hold these posts because they are good in their jobs."

Kureishy is upset by the fact that nearly half-a-dozen Muslim students complain to him every year that they do not get jobs because they are Muslims.

Interestingly, many students are not aware of a recession in the marketplace, or that many companies -- "Marwari or otherwise -- had approached the AMU campus, but did not find Muslim students up to the mark.

Kureishy also points out that Muslim students who are from the lower and middle classes have developed a separatist and defeatist attitude since the Ram Janambhoomi movement began ten years ago.

"After the riots many Muslims students have developed a separatist attitude. I don't mean they want a separate nation or any such thing, but there has been a growing feeling of alienation among them since the rise of the BJP."

Another disappointment among the students is over the media coverage, which they feel focuses only on what is wrong in the campus, never anything positive.

"BHU was shut down for three months, but there was not a word in the national newspapers. But when one student dies on our campus, newspapers and television give it enormous coverage," says Shakir Ali, a history student.

But it is the BJP that comes up for special mention, not even the moderate image of its prime ministerial candidate A B Vajpayee toning down the students' criticism.

"The BJP says 'give us a chance'," said Nasir Hussain, another history student, "Even Hitler in his autobiography, Mein Kampf, said the same thing."

Though the BJP has promised a riot-free State in its agenda, students feel the party has a hidden agenda against Muslims, in place since the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh was established in 1925.

"Muslims will judge Vajpayee by his RSS ideology and not by his secular image," feels Kasim Khan, a student of history. "The BJP has not changed by conviction, it has changed because of the compulsions of realpolitik."

Elections '98

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