Free coaching centres help 11 Muslims crack civil services exams

By Iftikhar Gilani


New Delhi: Despite an abysmally low percentage of Muslims selected for the civil services, free coaching has helped 11 candidates to crack the examination.
As many as 30 Muslims were declared successful in the civil services this year. Out of these, seven belong to J&K, of which, two come from the remote mountainous regions of Mendhar and Gurez valley and one from Sopore, the hotbed of separatism and militancy.

Dr. Syed Zafar Mahmood

Of the 30 successful Muslim candidates, six received coaching from Jamia Millia Islamia, four from Zakat Foundation of India and one from Haj Committee of India. Ironically, the two leading coaching centres at Aligarh Muslim University and Jamia Hamdard in Delhi, drew blank.
Four Muslim candidates, Syed Abid Rasheed Shah (rank 23), Nooh PB (rank 43), Md Shariq Badr (rank 48) and Amna Tasneem (rank 73) are in the top 100 positions.


The ratio of selection gives Muslims is 3.29%.Elaborating the reasons for this, Zafar Mahmood, a civil servant and chairman, Zakat Foundation of India, said, “The success can only be proportionate to the efforts. The ratio of success in the civil services examination is around two in a thousand, therefore, if participation is low, success would also be low.”Zakat Foundation of India had provided free coaching to 12 candidates out of whom four have been selected.


Maulana Asrarul Haq Qasmi, an MP, who runs a literacy foundation said that as per the proportion, 30,000 Muslims should have appeared in the examination.


One of the successful candidates Patil Salamantaj had pursued coaching at Mumbai’s Hajj House. This is the first time a student from the Hajj Committee’s UPSC coaching centre has cleared the prestigious exams.


(Courtesy: DNA, Mumbai)