Bangalore:  The Karnataka Minority Development Corporation a Non-Banking Financial Company established on 9th Feb 1986 about 35 yrs ago for the social, economic and educational development of religious minorities of the state. It worked under the administration of State Government’s Department of Minority Welfare. The government enterprise which worked for the betterment of Muslims, Christians, Jains, Buddhist and Sikh community and achieved success in development of the above mentioned communities. Primarily it provided self employment assistance funding schemes, loans for buying land for home and agricultural purpose, loans for constructing home, and mainly educational loans benefiting it many underprivileged students fulfilled the dream of achieving higher education and acquired IAS, IPS, KAS, MBBS,PHD, MPhil and Engineering Degree.
Since the news was broken out by the Media outlets, Muslim groups have slammed the BJP’s negligence and possible sabotage of NBFC status of KMDC. Prominent Muslim Organizations Such as Popular Front of India, Karnataka Muslim Political Forum KMPF and Political Parties such as SDPI and others have slammed the BJP govt and criticized its lethargic approach towards Muslim development.

In a Video statement published by many media outlets including DeccanDigest, Mr Siraj Jafferi Secretary of Karnataka Muslim Political Forum said that ” Ever since the BJP govt came to power in Karnataka the corporation is on constant negligence and is on the edge of losing the NBFC status. Displaying the level of discrimination and prejudiced practices of BJP govt against minorities. The State government under C M Bommai who was notably also Minority Minister after taking up the CM chair before allocation of Portfolios is responsible of robbing out KMDC’s NBFC status. He deliberately ignored all the measures to reinstating KMDC on purpose of keeping minorities mainly Muslims away from education as thousands of students benefitted through it.”

In his video statement Mr Siraj Jafferi Secy Karnataka Muslim Political Forum strongly condemned the silence of State government urged CM Bommai to resign if he is not capable of handling a small corporation and questioned how will he handle entire state. Taking a dig at CM Bommai who announced 3 new schemes for Minorities in Gulbarga last week Mr Siraj said “Mr Bommai when you are not able to save KMDC who are you fooling?”.

 

Saying that it is imperative on Muslim groups and organization to struggle for the existence of KMDC, Mr Siraj appealed to all the Muslim organizations and political leaders that Its high time for the so called Minority leaders to wake up from slumber and take notice of the situation and pressurize government to work in favour of KMDC so that thousand’s of students depended on the KMDC to continue their studies. Further negligence may push future of many students on stake.

On the Other Hand, PFI state President Yasir Hassan has also accused the govt of negligence he said “The neglect of the Karnataka Minority Development Corporation during the term of states BJP administration is a glaring example of the govt’s discriminatory practices against the minorities”. The Statement was released on PFI Karnataka’s social handles and went viral in no time.

“The government’s steady attempts towards gradually closing the Minority Development Corporation is an unfair, biased act taken against the Jain, Buddhist, Sikh, and specifically Christian and Muslim communities. Notably, in the past, the government had also indulged in slowly cutting back on the grants meant for the Knowledge/Awareness Schemes that were allocated for educational assistance. With that, the government had also deducted the amounts apportioned for fellowships offered to eligible students seeking to finish their PhD and MPhil degrees. Before that, the government had made excessive cutbacks on grants allocated for the minority welfare projects”, he informed.

He added that The utter negligence is visible in actions of the government who ignored multiple letters issued by the RBI concerning reinstate. Letter from RBI dated back to 2nd March 2021is also on record. The Regional Director of The RBI had reportedly written a letter to the Chief Secy of the Government on 25th Oct 2021. Another letter was written by I.S.N Prasad. The additional Chief Secy to the Government from the economic development had issued letter to the Chief Secy of the Govt Department of Minorities Wellfare Hajj and Wakf on Nov 29 2021. Despite receiving multiple letters neither KMDC directors nor Minority Minister Shashikalla Jolle carried out any appropriate actions in this regard and constant negligence towards the Corporation by the BJP has resulted in KMDC to almost lose it NBFC license.”

The KMDC in its part, tried to calm down the issue by saying it is an old one and it doesnt affect the beneficiaries. To which the Muslim Social activists of Karnataka have questioned that if KMDC loses its NBFC how come the beneficiaries wont get affected. They said that already the KMDC is feeling pressure and trying to get back the loan money from the Students and small businessmen of the community. This is outrageous given the economical conditions in last 3 years.