NEW DELHI, Dec. 12 -- Do not cut off the branch you are sitting' seems to be the best adage to characterize the recent decision of the Central Government to discontinue the scholarship scheme to students, from Class I to VIII, of poor families of minority communities. It has been restricted to students of Classes IX and X from the next academic year. The scheme is run by the Union Ministry of Minority Affairs. On the one hand, the government vigorously propagates with much fanfare the slogan 'Education for All', but on the other it puts a spoke in its own wheel of efforts to provide education to children from some of the most marginalized and neglected sections of the society. These scholarships were instituted after the Sachar Committee,...