New Delhi, Dec. 12: Naheed Abidi, a Sanskrit scholar from Varanasi, and economist Baltej Singh Mann have been appointed members of a body that promotes education for the minorities.

The Union human resource development ministry last week appointed Abidi and Mann to the National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions for a term of five years each.

Abidi received the Padma Shri last year from the Manmohan Singh government. One of her books, Sanskrit Sahitya Men Raheem, was released in 2006 by then human resource development minister Arjun Singh.

In September last year, Abidi met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and presented her books. A Press Information Bureau release had then said that Abidi had translated works by several Persian scholars into Hindi and Sanskrit and earned appreciation from the Prime Minister.

Abidi was made a member of the Central Advisory Board of Education, the highest advisory body on education, when the human resource development ministry reconstituted it last June. She is also a member of the Central Board of Film Certification, appointed by the former UPA government.

"I have taken charge as NCMEI member. I shall work for the minorities and their education," Abidi told The Telegraph over the phone from Varanasi, her hometown and Modi's Lok Sabha constituency.

Her husband Ethesham Abidi, a member of the National Council for Promotion of Urdu Languages, said few Muslims knew so much about Sanskrit literature as his wife.

Naheed Abidi's book D evalayasya Deepah (Temple Lamp) is a Sanskrit translation of Mirza Ghalib's Chiragh-e-Dair, written in Persian during a visit to Varanasi. "She has been felicitated by different governments because of her work," Ethesham said.

Abidi had taught Sanskrit as a guest lecturer at the Mahatma Gandhi Kashi Vidyapeeth, Varanasi, for about three months about four years ago, said Rama Murthy Chaturvedi, a professor at the university. Chaturvedi said Abidi did her PhD in the Vedas from the Vidyapeeth.

The National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions is mandated to advise the Centre and the states on the education of minorities and look into alleged violations of the minorities' rights to establish and administer educational institutions of their choice.

It holds hearings to decide an institution's minority status. In 2011, it had declared Delhi's Jamia Millia Islamia a minority university, a decision that has been challenged in a high court.

Mann, a retired professor, had held several academic posts, such as dean (resource mobilisation) at Punjabi University, Patiala. He has done extensive research in the areas of monetary and industrial economics.

The commission, which is supposed to have three members and a chairperson, now has three members but remains headless.