Asking the BJP to introspect and go for a course correction for its stand on the central university, AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi on Friday lauded the Supreme Court’s order after it overruled the 1967 judgement on the minority status of Aligarh Muslim University (AMU).

Overruling its 57-year-old judgement that stated the university could not be considered a minority institution since it was created by a central law, the Supreme Court today deferred the question of AMU’s minority status to a new bench.

Schooling the BJP for its stance on the AMU, the AIMIM president said the BJP has opposed the minority status of AMU over all these years. “What is it going to do now?” he asked.

The Hyderabad MP said that the saffron party has made every effort to attack AMU and Jamia, and “our right to even run madrasas”.

He said the Modi govt should take this judgement in its stride and it should support AMU as it is also a central university. “Jamia gets ₹3L per student, AMU gets ₹3.9L per student, but BHU gets ₹6.15L,” he claimed in a post on X.

He added, “Jamia and AMU have consistently performed well in national rankings. With the right support the Universities could be globally renowned. But for that, Modi must stop discriminating against them. AMU’s Kishanganj centre has been languishing for the past many years. This must also be addressed urgently and the centre should begin working as soon as possible,” he said.

“It is an important day for Muslims of India. The 1967 judgement had rejected minority status of #AMU when in fact it was. Article 30 states that minorities have the right to establish and administer their educational institutions in a manner that they deem fit,” Owaisi said.

He said the “right of minorities to educate themselves has been upheld”, congratulating the students and faculty of AMU.

“It does not matter if the University was established before the Constitution, or if it was set up by a law of the govt. It is a minority institution if it was established by minorities. All the arguments of the BJP were rejected,” he added.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday slammed the Congress-National Conference alliance after the Jammu and Kashmir assembly passed a resolution demanding the restoration of Article 370. He said that the action was part of a conspiracy against the Union Territory.

Addressing a rally in Maharashtra’s Dhule, PM Modi said that as soon as Congress and the INDI alliance got the chance to form a government in Jammu and Kashmir, they started with their conspiracies against Kashmir. He continued that two days ago, they passed a resolution in the J&K legislative assembly to restore Article 370. 

The Jammu and Kashmir Assembly on Wednesday passed the resolution opposing the revocation of Article 370 by a voice vote. The BJP had opposed the resolution. The Prime Minister said that the BJP MLAs were thrown out of the assembly for opposing the resolution.

He said that banners were shown in the Jammu and Kashmir parliament in support of Article 370. Mentioning  that the Congress alliance passed a resolution to implement Article 370 there again, the Prime Minister questioned whether the country will accept this. When the BJP MLAs protested against this with all their might, they were picked up and thrown out of the assembly, he continued.

PM Modi further urged that the entire country will have to understand the truth of Congress and its alliance, adding that the country won’t accept the resolution. He also voiced that till Modi is there, Congress won’t be able to do anything in Kashmir. He stated that only Bhim Rao Ambedkar’s Constitution will run there, and no power can bring back 370.

Notably, the restoration of Article 370 and Jammu and Kashmir’s statehood were the main promises made by the National Conference in its manifesto for the Jammu and Kashmir assembly election. Addressing a rally in Nashik, PM Modi said the Congress and its allies want Babasaheb Ambedkar’s Constitution to be thrown out of Jammu and Kashmir. He also recalled that by abrogating Article 370, he implemented the constitution of Dr. Ambedkar in Kashmir, adding that it was his biggest tribute to Babasaheb Ambedkar.

Congress MP Rahul Gandhi on Friday accused the BJP of trying to snatch the tribals’ water, forest, and land in Jharkhand. Addressing a public rally in Simdega, the Leader of Opposition said that BJP has always insulted tribal identity and has tried to snatch away their rights, but Congress will protest their water, forest and land at all costs.

The Congress MP further said that PM Modi calls the tribals vanvasi (forest dwellers) as his party believes that land, forest, and water belong to it, the RSS, and capitalists. He continued that BJP believes in grabbing tribal land under its newly-coined word, development, and wants to snatch land, water, forests from them.

Rahul Gandhi, who has been repeatedly claiming that the Constitution was under constant attack from the BJP, echoed his charge, adding that the Congress-led INDIA bloc was making all efforts to protect the Constitution. He also vowed to remove the 50% cap on reservation.

He mentioned that if Congress is voted to power, they will raise the reservation of Scheduled Tribes to 28% from 26%; from 10% to 12% for the Scheduled Castes, and for Other Backward Classes (OBCs) to 27% from 14%.

Reiterating on caste census, Gandhi mentioned the exercise was a must to identify the participation of tribals, Dalits, and OBCs in various institutions and wealth of the country. Alleging that PM Modi became silent when the issue of Caste Census was raised in the Parliament, the Congress MP claimed that he wants 90% of the people to get participation, while BJP wants the country to be run by a few people like Narendra Modi, Amit Shah and Ambani-Adani.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi while addressing a rally in Maharashtra today said that it was due to BJP efforts that an Adivasi woman Droupadi Murmu became the first Adivasi President of the country.

Jharkhand will hold elections on November 13 and 20. The counting of votes is scheduled for November 23.