Bahrain to reinstate scholarships wades into controversy

Bahrain's education ministry has come under fire from a lawmaker after it decided to reinstate the 100 student scholarships it cancelled in March as a punitive measure for participating in demonstrations, mainly in London. "We have been receiving letters from students and parents in which they said that they would uphold the law and regulations governing scholarships," Majid Al Nuaimi, the education minister, said. "Some of the students had been obviously tricked into getting implicated in negative activities." However, MP Abdul Halim Murad blasted the decision, saying that it was "provocative and unacceptable". "The move to reinstate scholarships of students who were clearly against the state is a clear indication of weakness and impotence," he said. "The decision is provocative and unacceptable and has come as a shock to most of the people. We are now concerned that we will be seeing a series of concessions that will undermine the status of the state, laws and institutions." From : Gulf News