BY MOBIN PANDIT
DOHA: There are very few Muslims in India’s defence forces but that’s because they don’t make any effort to get in there, and not due to any discrimination, says a retired Indian lieutenant-general from the community who was here on a brief visit late last week.
Zameer Uddin Shah, however, agreed to a suggestion that fellow Muslims back home may have a perception of being discriminated against when it came to recruitment to security forces.
But he quickly added that such thinking was faulty as the Indian defence forces were the most secular. “If the talk of discrimination were true, I would have retired as a major or a colonel at the most,” said Shah.
He said the fact that he climbed up the rungs based on merit, and not only became a lieutenant-general but also deputy chief of army staff amply demonstrated the secular character of the Indian defence forces.
“I am not being hypocritical. What I am saying is absolutely true,” insisted Shah. His son and several other relatives are also in the Indian defence forces.
According to him, during the selection process for the Indian security forces a candidate just has a “chest number” and no name identifying him.
“So how on earth someone is going to know who you are and what your religious affiliation is.”
Shah said the talk, or perception, of discrimination stems from a lack of confidence which, in turn, is an outcome of a lack of education.
“Discrimination is in human nature. If you are uneducated you are prone to falling prey to discrimination. Discrimination is only about uneducated people.”
Shah currently heads an elite Muslim educational institution in India, Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), in the country’s most populous northern state of Uttar Pradesh (UP).
A large number of past students of AMU are employed in Qatar and other Gulf countries in different sectors.
During his stay here Shah attended, as chief guest, an event held by a key association of the university’s alumni (Bazm-e-Alig).
Shah insisted in remarks to The Peninsula during a brief interview that the root cause of all the malaise Indian Muslims suffered today was a lack of education.
He said one of the key initiatives he had taken during his vice-chancellorship at AMU was to raise awareness among young Muslim students about making a career in defence.
“We got to be true to our salt,” he told a large group of secondary school students of AMU during such a campaign. His effort led to some 10 students eventually making it to the National Defence Academy (NDA) as a start, he said.
At AMU, Shah plans to revitalise a residential coaching academy so meritorious Muslim students can be rigorously prepared to make it to elite Indian civil, police and allied services through competitive examinations.
Over 90 years old, AMU has a large residential campus, with its current student strength being 28,000. Of this, some 15,000 students stay in hostels.
But a severe shortage of hostel accommodation has led to over-crowding. “These 15,000 students are accommodated in rooms meant just for 6,000. So we are currently busy trying to address this problem,” he said.
He seemed upset about criticisms that a man with army background should head as large an educational institution as AMU.
“The fact is that the Indian army lays tremendous emphasis on education,” said Shah, pointing out that during his over 40-year-stint with the Indian armed forces, he had headed various key training and army educational institutions as well.
Incidentally, Shah’s younger brother is a famous Bollywood actor, Nasseruddin Shah.
The Peninsula
