Mr. Salman Khurshid
is presently the President of Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee.
His earlier assignments include being the General Secretary, All
India Congress Committee and Union Minister for External Affairs,
Government of India. A dynamic leader, who has combined in himself
the introspection of a man of learning and the boldness of a man
of action, former Minister of State for External Affairs. His deep
sense of nationalism and secular outlook has led to the setting
up of a chain of Delhi Public Schools both in India and abroad.
Shri Salman Khurshid is a well known educationist, social reformer
and political thinker having a powerful emerging presence in the
Indian political scenerio. He is a befitting heir to a great legacy
of national service bequeathed by Dr. Zakir Hussain, his grandfather
and the late President of India and his father Mr. Khursheed Alam
Khan, the former Governor of Karnataka.
A product of
DPS, St. Stephen's and Oxford, he is an eminent lawyer of the Supreme
court of India and an orator par excellence. He is also a prolific
author and some of his eminent publications include - 'At Home in
India', 'If Winter Comes', 'Beyond Terrorism'.
As President
of the DPS Society he has provided dynamic leadership and vision
encouraging the society to emerge as a powerful agency for national
educational growth with a transcontinental identity. He is closely
associated with many national and international organisations in
spheres of education, humanitarian work and law as Patron and Member.
He has also completed his thesis for his Phd in Oxford and is awaiting
a formal approval from the authorities before he is bestowed the
prestigious Phd from the Oxford University.
Salman Khurshid (b 1953, Aligarh) did his schooling at St. Xavier's
School (Patna), Delhi Public School (Mathura Road, New Delhi), and
college from St. Stephens College (Delhi University) and St. Edmund
Hall (Oxford). He then taught Law at the Trinity College, Oxford.
A renowned legal thinker and a practicing senior advocate at the
Supreme Court of India, he is known for his varied interests in
different fields. He leaves a monumental impression in every field
of endeavour he engages in and always looks for new vistas of action.
As an educationist his calibre is unparalleled. In the capacity
of President of Delhi Public School Society he took remarkable steps
to expand this elite institution network from 14 to 75 schools in
India as well as abroad. He established in Mewat, Haryana (a totally
backward area where literacy is abysmal) 3 satellite branches of
DPS for the poor and disadvantaged. His vision to impart modern
education in the schools like the Islamia Schools without disturbing
the basic religious ethos will become the guiding spirit for other
institutions of Muslims and perhaps a harbinger of modern education
amongst them. He has also taken bold initiatives to introduce languages
of different linguistic groups, like Urdu in the DPS curriculum.
Salman Khurshid
plunged into politics as an heir to a political legacy but because
he wanted to do that uniquely with a difference. He abhors the stereotype
Muslim leader model, surviving on emotional sloganeering and pushing
the community to political suicide. Nor does he see himself as a
"secular leader" sadly cut off from the mainstream. The
image of Salman Khurshid is of a national leader who is by faith
a Muslim, whose family legacy points to the issues of Muslims, but
who sees the solution to their grievances in educational advancement.
He repudiates the thesis of their shedding their identity to prove
their Indianness. With very clear views about the Urdu speaking
uneducated Muslims, Salman Khurshid took up the issue of Urdu as
a means of imparting education maintaining all along that Urdu is
the language of national integration. Abandoning Urdu means abandoning
the history of five hundred years. History, even when we do not
like it, is precious as a memory of a nation. Hence, he committed
himself to the agenda of inclusion of Urdu in the secular education
system. He has a clear understanding that Urdu can survive only
if promoted at school level education. He believes that traditional
discussions and debate on Urdu literature, culture and identity
will be ineffective for the survival of Urdu language. Hence, the
only way for Urdu is in reviving formal Urdu education in its own
script. This will be the rallying slogan of the coming times and
Salman Khurshid hopes to lead that movement.
Salman Khurshid
has actively addressed many public concerns. He has devoted himself
to the welfare of common masses and has opened various big and small
educational institutions including schools, ITIs for girls, Computer
Centres with Urdu DTP; an orthopaedic hospital and other welfare
projects such as water-management. His work has enthused the common
people of Farrakhabad and the district is emerging as a model civil
society. Most recently he has planned a university for technical
education of the minorities that will be set up in the vicinity
of Lucknow. Initially an Engineering college will be established.
This will be ready by 2004 and will eventually grow into a university.
A College for Rural and Agriculture Engineering, School of Nursing,
a Dental college and a Medical college will follow the Engineering
College. For this purpose the Modern Education Foundation has been
established which has purchased 200 acres of land near Lucknow.
The Modern Education Foundation also intends to establish a chain
of English Medium High Schools and Senior Secondary Schools. The
idea behind this is that in absence of such schools, aspiring Muslim
students will not be able to cope with the modern competition. They
need schooling of high quality that will enable them to compete
with the best in the world.
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