Salman gives up, madarsas stay with HRD ministry

NEW DELHI: In the turf war between the ministry for minority affairs ministry and the human resource development ministry over minority education , it is the latter that won the day. Minister for minority affairs Salman Khurshid said that his ministry was of the view that minority education, and more particularly madarsa modernisation, was better served by the ministry of human resource development.

���There isn���t a great desire in this ministry to take away madarsa modernisation from the line ministry . The HRD ministry has the wherewithal to better serve the needs of the madarsas. We will continue to interact with the madarsas and provide inputs to the human resource ministry,��� Mr Khurshid said.

Earlier, the ministry of minority affairs had made a pitch to the prime minister for allocation of minority education, particularly madarsa modernisation. The minister argued that he was not interested in acquiring more turf for his ministry but to work out ways in which certain areas can be ���better nurtured and serviced���.

The minister had made a case that his ministry had more dealings with those who run madarsas, and therefore was likely to be in a better position to persuade madarsas to follow a modernisation programme.

However, it is unlikely that any of these arguments would have cut much ice with HRD minister Kapil Sibal. Sources close to Mr Sibal had indicated that there was no way that minority education would be removed from the ministry���s work allocation. Mr Sibal has already got his ministry working on rolling out an implementation plan for the Sachar Committee recommendations.

Mr Khurshid for his part had acknowledged that there was no unanimity in the view of whether minority education should be administered by the minority affairs ministry.