The incident occurred on April 24 2023, when 14 students from Purnia, Bihar, were travelling to Ghatampur Madrasa in Kanpur after celebrating Eid. The RPF detained the students for not having the required documents and subsequently sent them to a juvenile home for seven days in custody. A report by The Hindu states that the students were detained despite producing valid documents. They were also reportedly put in a ward which was shared by people with criminal backgrounds. This, the commission notes, was humiliating and discriminatory, and “highlights the action taken in view of their apparel and their names.”

The letter, dated May 30, was written by the Secretary Shakil Ahmed Siddiqui to Senior Divisional Security Commissioner, Railway Protection Force (RPF), North Central Railways, Prayagraj Division. 

This news comes not far after a similar case where the Government Railway Police (GRP) in Manmad and Bhusawal recently officially closed two criminal cases they had started against five madrasa teachers who were arrested in May 2023 on allegations of trafficking 59 Muslim children from Bihar to Maharashtra. The teachers, who were jailed for four weeks following their arrest, have been cleared of all charges, as per a report in the Indian Express. As per reports, the incident had taken place on May 30 2023, when 59 children between the ages of 8 to 17 were travelling by train to Pune and Sangli from Bihar’s Araria district to study at madrasas.

A senior officer acted on ‘intelligence’ and contacted the juvenile justice board and the Railway Protection Force (RPF), after which an NGO reportedly took the children to Bhusawal and Manmad stations. The teachers who had been with them had been booked under 370 and 34 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

The Indian Express reported that the children were placed in shelter homes in Nashik and Bhusawal for 12 days. Worried and angry parents of the children demanded their children be returned. The Nashik district administration at last had arranged for the children’s return to Bihar.

The summary closure report now submitted a year later states that there was no sign of ‘human trafficking’ as the officers had earlier thought. 

However, the case and the whole process has seemingly had a horrifying effect on the local residents of Araria and families of those accused and detained. Mohammed Shahnawaz Haroon, a Sangli resident, talking about the trauma caused by the case, “Though people knew the cases were false, the FIRs and arrests changed perceptions, causing us social and psychological suffering.”

Their advocate Niyaz Lodhi, who represented the teachers, has said that the five teachers should now demand compensation, adding that such false cases impact the department’s credibility as well. 

Related

 Repeat offender among suspects in lynching of Muslim man in Gujarat

3 Communal Insta Posts by BJP taken down in Chhattisgarh, CEO issued “strong warning” to the BJP

Indore Law College book controversy case: SC quashes FIR against former principal of the college, rebukes Madhya Pradesh HC for not providing relief 

Cow vigilantes chase truck, tie up Muslim truck driver, and associate

11 educational institutions target of organised Hindutva mobs in in Kolhapur: Fact-finding team

The post UP Madrasa students detained, UP Minority Commission calls it ‘discriminatory’ and ‘humiliating’ appeared first on SabrangIndia.

The SIT is reportedly spearheaded by ADG ATS Mohit Agarwal and is made up SP Cyber Crime Dr Triveni Singh and Director of Minority Welfare, J. Reebha.

As per a report by the Hindustan Times a UP government official told the newspaper that these madrasas are receiving funds from ‘Gulf countries.’

Another official told HT, that the SIT has not been able to obtain proof of transparent records of funds from these madrasas as they have failed to provide documents showing details about their income or expenditure. This has reportedly lead them to suspect that there could a conspiracy, as per the report.

In response to the issue of these “illegal” madrasas in Uttar Pradesh, Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya, as per a report on March 7 by The Hindu, has asserted that action will be taken against people involved in ‘anti-national’ activities under the pretext of education. The deputy CM also stated, “I haven’t seen the report. If there are activities against the country under the guise of education, then investigation will be done and action will be taken against the culprits. Those who do good work will be protected and appreciated by the government.”

According to the Free Press Journal, a representative from the UP State Madrasa Board has stated that a good number of these madrasas have “strategically situated themselves along the Nepal border.” The report by the SIT has reportedly backed this claim by arguing that there are 300 madrasas in each of these districts bordering Nepal, including Maharajganj, Shravasti, Bahraich, and Gonda.

According to a recent report by the Hindustan Times, J. Reebha, who is part of the SIT, has stated, “We have only sent some recommendations to the state government and still have to submit the final report. We cannot share details, but there have been many madrasas which claim to have been constructed through donations, yet they struggle to disclose the names of contributors.”

In December 2023, the Times of India reported that the SIT had identified 80 madrasas in the state that had received donation of over 100 crore. The SIT was, as per the report, at the time in the process of identifying if there were any financial irregularities in these.

The Economic Times has reported that UP had around 8000 unrecognised madrasas in the state in 2022. This was revealed after a survey was conducted in the state. The UP Madara Education Board chairperson Iftikhar Ahmed Javed had stated that it had been 8 years since any new recognition process had started, which is why several of these institutes were labelled illegal. Javed had also written to chief minister Yogi Adityanath to institute the process to recognise these madrasas. According to the Indian Express, the highest number of such madrasas was recorded in Moradabad. In November 2023, Iftikhar Javed told Maktoob Media that the education of over 7 lakh students is put into danger , “5,000 madrasas in Uttar Pradesh (UP) have applied for the registration to get them recognized since 2016, and that remains pending, because it doesn’t get any response from the authorities. This also put the education of more than 7 lakh students at stake.” Dr Javed also told Maktoob Media that, “The government after more than a year of survey is now coming up with this new technique to target madrasas because they couldn’t find anything potential against them and now they will plant one.”

The decision to close these 13,000 allegedly illegal madrasas comes after the government expressed concerns about the use of foreign funds to promote terrorist activities.

As per a Hate Buster by Citizens for Justice and Peace, madrasas are institutes of education that receive students of all backgrounds, even Hindu students, and thereby are not restricted to educating students of one community. The Hate Buster dispels stereotypes that reveals that according to the Sachar Committee report which was released in 2006, madrasas see students who are mostly from low-income families who often attend the madrasas because they receive education, boarding and often meals too for free. It further asserts that to target such institutes as ‘anti-national’ which exist as spaces that offer underprivileged students education, boarding, and meals en masse would be to violate the rights of the young children studying and availing resources, however meagre, at these institutions.

Related:

Delhi violence 2020: 4 years on, the shadow of violence lives on

Haldwani: Police allege planned mob attack, as local Muslims state police harassing and detaining family members without evidence

Uttar Pradesh, Bihar: Outrage erupts as policemen commit heinous crimes against Dalits

The post UP Government SIT recommends closure of 13, 000 Madrasas, alleges unaccounted funding from ‘Gulf’ appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Lucknow: The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR)’s recommendation to trace non-Muslim children studying in all government-funded/recognised madrasas and shifting them to other educational institutes along with mapping all unmapped madrasas has triggered a fresh controversy in the state. The UP Madrasa Education Board (UPMEB) has unanimously rejected the NCPCR recommendations.

With the move sparking fierce criticism from Muslim organisations and Opposition parties, the Board chairman Iftikhar Ahmed Javed, while opposing the NCPCR recommendation, said it was “discriminatory” and goes against the tenets of the Madrasa Education Board. The students taking education can not be differentiated on the basis of religion, it added.

“We follow the ideology of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas’ and will never remove the students of non-Muslim faith from madrasa, shifting them to other institutions. This kind of practice should not be implemented in the education sector. If parents are sending their children to our madrasas, they will continue to study there,” Javed told the media.

He went on to add that “the madrasa education board has unanimously rejected the NCPCR recommendations.”

Speaking with NewsClick, Javed said: “PM Modi wants children studying at madrasas to hold the Quran in one hand and a computer in the other. Allowing a survey of children in madrasas of Uttar Pradesh is not right; it will encourage discrimination among children on religious grounds. Non-Muslim children are studying in madrasas and non-Hindu children are studying in Sanskrit schools. Children of every religion are also studying in missionary schools. I myself studied at Banaras Hindu University (BHU). The NCPCR should reconsider their letter.”

He added, “We will not allow a divide to be created between Muslims and non-Muslim communities as this goes against the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) principle of Sabka Saath Sabka Vikas.”

Seeking that the Commission reconsiders its recommendation, Javed had stated that “we are providing modern education to children under NCERT (National Council of Educational Research and Training) syllabus. Only religious education is not being imparted in madrasas.”

“If the NCPCR head has any evidence of forced religious conversion of any student or forceful admission of non-Muslim students in a madrasa, then he must share inputs and lodge an FIR,” Javed said.

THE ISSUE

The controversy started in December last year after a notification was issued to the UP Minority Affairs and Waqf Department wherein the NCPCR said that giving Islamic education to non-Muslim students was a violation of Article 28(3) and sought a reply within three days.

The Commission had also recommended all non-Muslim children studying in madrasas be admitted to other schools after the inquiry.

The decision was conveyed in a letter written by the NCPCR Chairperson Priyank Kanoongo, on December 8, 2022, to all Chief Secretaries, who had noted that children belonging to non-Muslim communities were attending government-funded or recognised madrasas. “It is also learnt by the commission that some States and Union Territories are providing them with scholarships too. “It is a clear-cut violation and contravention of Article 28(3) of the Constitution of India that prohibits educational institutions from obligating the children to take part in any religious instruction, without the consent of the parent,” the letter stated.

Madrasas, as institutions, are primarily responsible for imparting religious education to children, the commission said, adding it was learnt that those madrasas funded or recognised by the government were imparting both religious and to some extent formal education to children.

Meanwhile, soon after the UPMEB unanimously rejected the recommendations of NCPCR to inspect recognised madrasas in order to trace non-Muslim students and shift them to other educational institutes, the commission served a notice to the state government seeking a compliance report within three days.

Shuchita Chaturvedi, a member of the Uttar Pradesh State Commission for Protection of Child Rights, attacked the madrasas and termed it unfair for non-Muslim children to study in madrasas.

MADRASA BODY WRITES TO PM MODI, PRESIDENT

The All India Teachers Association Madaris Arabiya — a teachers’ body has also written to the President and Prime Minister stating that NCPCR recommendations were violative of the Right to Education and go against the spirit of the Constitution of India.

Wahidullah Khan Sayeedi, the national general secretary of the organisation, stressed in the letter that such recommendations create “hatred and animosity” in society while also creating a sense of “suspicion and ill-will” toward madrasas.

Sayeedi said the issuance of such letters and directions for educational institutions “on the basis of mere complaints and imaginations” and “without any concrete proof or evidence” only harms their image. He also insisted that dividing educational institutions on the basis of religion, community or caste and creating a sense of animosity towards them on these lines was not right.

Saying that no student is given admission in any madrasa without the consent of their parents, Sayeedi has urged the President and the Prime Minister to take appropriate action on the letter of NCPCR’s chairperson.

MODI’S MADRASA MODERNISATION PUSH?

The Uttar Pradesh madrasa body and teachers’ association has expressed doubts over the Narendra Modi-led Union government’s intention that claims it wants to ‘modernise’ the syllabus of madrasas in Uttar Pradesh so that the students are also taught subjects like Math, English, Computer Science and Hindi.

The teachers’ associations alleged that for more than three years they have not been paid salary despite several protests in the state.

Badre Alam, a teacher in Gorakhpur told NewsClick: “Out of a hundred, four-five are Hindus in general, that too not enrolled in every madrasa. They come as they do not have a school nearby their house, we don’t bring non-Muslim children to the madrasa forcefully, they come with the consent of their parents. However, we don’t teach them Urdu and Arabic. If their parents ask us to teach Urdu, then we teach them.”

Muslim Khan, a madrasa teacher in Ghazipur told NewsClick: “Education should not be painted in two colours – Hindu and Muslim. For a teacher, students coming to a madrasa, missionary or any other school are only students. We don’t view children through the lens of religion. Though it is an Arabic word, which means an educational institution, we no longer work on the old traditional patterns of teaching. Every subject including Maths, Science, English etc apart from Urdu, Arabic and the Quran is taught. We also teach Sanskrit to non-Hindu students,”

Khan who teaches at Khwaja Gharib Nawaz Madrasa in Ghazipur where nearly 25-to 30% of students are non-Muslims in every class, believes that the madrasas are being targeted for political mileage ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.  

“I have studied in a minority school and when I was in class 6, I was asked to write an essay on Bhishma Pitamah and had written it so well that my teacher was surprised, Therefore, we should not differentiate between students on religious grounds,” he said.

Doubting PM Modi’s madrasa modernisation plan, Khan alleged: “Madrasa teachers in the state have not been paid their salary for the last three-four years. The government claims they want to modernise madrasas which lack basic facilities, including teacher’s training, but they have a very low budget. During the Congress regime, the budget for madrasas was around Rs 200 crore when teachers used to be few, now the budget has come down to Rs 10 crore. Neither the teachers’ salary can be given in Rs 10 crore nor the previous dues can be cleared, leave alone modernisation. The government is giving slow poison to madrasa teachers. When the budget is low, then the payment will not be received and when the payment is not received then the teacher will not teach on an empty stomach. The government is waiting for everything to end slowly so that they don’t have to take the onus.” 

Notably, the UP government’s recent directive to all the district magistrates to begin a survey to identify “unrecognised madrasas” has also kicked up a political storm as many minority organisations see it as an attempt to target the community.

Courtesy: Newsclick

The post UP: NCPCR Bid to ‘Trace’ Non-Muslim Students in Madrasas; ‘Discriminatory’, Says UPMEB appeared first on SabrangIndia.

 
Lucknow: The UP Government has proposed a new dress code for Madrasa students in a bid to end the difference between other school students.
 
According to official figures, 16,461 Madrasas are functioning in the state, including 560 government-aided and 8,171 attached to the Madrasa Modernisation scheme.
 
“The aim of the UP government is to bring madrasas at par with other educational institutions in every sense. Till now, students in madrasas have been wearing ‘kurta-payjamas’ but now this dress code will make it more formal… We might also try to meet the expenses,” said State Minister for Muslim Waqf and Haj Mohsin Raza on Tuesday.
 
“Stressing that it is only the BJP-led governments which have done justice with the minorities, the minister said the other political parties have been considering them as only a vote-bank. Raza said the current dressing style of madrasa students reflects a clear demarcation between them and the students of other schools which will come to an end now,” The Hindustan Times reported.
 
“The state government has already gone ahead with its plans to introduce NCERT books in the madrasas of Uttar Pradesh in a bid to bring their students at par with their counterparts in other schools and to modernise the education in madrasas affiliated to the State Madrasa Board,” the report added.
 
“Our intentions are absolutely clear as we work with transparency and believe in sabka saath, sabka vikas”, he said adding that Prime Minister wanted to integrate the Muslim society with the country’s mainstream with a Quran in one hand and a laptop in the other. “Madrasa students are already availing religious education, we are not going to hamper it, we are only going to impart them social education to integrate them with the country’s mainstream and help them go to the IIMs or the IITs and clear competitive examinations,” he said in the report.
 
“The government’s move evoked a mixed reaction from the community leaders with one section welcoming it cautiously and the other questioning the need to tinker with the madrassa students traditional attire. “We will welcome it if it is good, but only after seeing what the changes are and with what intentions they are being brought,” said UP unit president of the Jamait Ulema-e-Hind, Ashhad Rashidi, who runs a number of madrassas in Moradabad, Rampur and Bijnore. The spokesperson for All India Shia Personal Law Board, Yasoob Abbas, however, questioned the need for bringing a change in the traditional attire worn in madrassas. “Who has objected to the traditional attire… it is acceptable by all… we are not in favour of the government forcing a new dress for students,” Abbas said in a report by The Business Standard.
 
“The HRD ministry is working on a plan to revamp madrasa education in the country under the Scheme to Provide Quality Education in Madrasas (SPQEM), under which the institutions would have to get affiliated to either madrasa boards or state boards to be eligible for central government funds. The government is also planning to map madrasas in the country based on their Global Positioning System,” reported News18.
 
With inputs from PTI
 

The post UP govt wants new dress code for madrasa students appeared first on SabrangIndia.

These institutiond were ordered to compulsorily observe India’s Independence Day, August 15, and the same compellef  to video-graph the exercise, to be sent to the administration, as patriotism proof.

The order was issued by registrar of UP Madrasa Shiksha Parishad, Rahul Gupta. The circular directed all madrasaas to hoist the tricolour and sing the national anthem at 8 am. The madrasaa gatherings were also asked to be told about the sacrifices of the freedom fighters. The flag hoisting was to  be followed by a speech on the importance of the freedom struggle and the sacrifices made by freedom fighters. It was also ordered that students would have to pay tributes to freedom fighters on the occasion.^[1]

When asked why only madrasaas were ordered to celebrate Independence with a list of dos and provide proof of the same and this order was not applicable on the government school, the Basic Education Board secretary, Sanjay Sinha, crossing all norms of decency, fair-play, justice and equal treatment to all citizens, made this shocking statement: “We trust our schools. They are our teachers, our students and so why should we seek any evidence.”^[2]

Thus making it clear that madarsa students and teachers were ‘others’ whose loyalty was suspect. This statement not only doubted the loyalty of Muslims attached to madrasaas but is also directed at generating  hatred towards the largest minority of UP. Such a statement coming from a senior UP official could lead to provokrd or perpetrated violence against Muslims in general and is a criminal act under section 153 A of the Indian Penal Code. The police should have filed FIR under the law.^[3]

No action was taken by the State which the situation demanded. Even more shameful was the indifferent attitude of prominent Muslim organisations of UP who slept over it, instead of taking recourse to judicial redressal.
 
Madrassas played a great and heroic role in the struggle for India’s Freedom
 
The madrasas under communal attack in UP and elsewhere have been part of India’s glorious freedom struggle. The renowned historian RC Majumdar who produced tremendous body of research based works on the Cellular Jail found out that the first batch of persons who were  incarcerated there consisted of leaders of thr 1857 Uprising like Maulana Fazle Haq Khairabadi, Maulana Liaqat Ali and Maulana Jafar Ali Thaneshwari who died there while serving life sentences. The second batch of prisoners were Wahabi maulvi revolutionaries who had continued waging the 1857 liberation struggle.^[4] VD Savarkar before turning into an apostle of Hindu separatism, in his monumental work on 1857 Uprising, The Indian War of Independence 1857 hugely praised maulvis like Ahmed Shah who “had woven fine and cleverly the webs of the Jehad.”^[5]

According to the contemporary documents of the British military archives, in Delhi itself the British army after capturing the city in September 1857 hanged more than 3000 teachers and students of madrasaas. Muslims were not allowed entry into the city till 1859.

During the anti-colonial freedom movement, these were madrasaa maulvis (teachers) like Maulana Shibli Nomani, Maulana Shaukat Ali, Maulana Mohammed Ali, Maulana Hifzur Rehman, Maulana Hasrat Mohani, Hafiz Ibrahim, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, Maulana Habeebur Rehman Ludhianvi and Maulana Madani who with Gandhi, Nehru, Sardar Patel bore brunt of the repression for being part of the freedom movement. Some of these maulvis were incarcerated at Malta and spent half of their lives in the British jails. It is to be noted that these maulvis refused to accept Partition of India on the religious bases despite Congress accepting it.

Madrassas with such a glorious role in the freedom struggle of India with countless martyrs from its past fraternity in the cause of the freedom of India, are being ridiculed and harassed for being ‘disloyal’. The State is out to teach the ‘anti-national’ Muslims patriotism. Let’s compare this fundamental character of madrasaas with the role of RSS and Hindu Mahasabha in the freedom struggle whose children the rule India presently.

The RSS Hatred for the Tricolour
 The RSS since its inception in 1925 hated anything, which symbolized the united struggle of the Indian people against British rule. The case of the Tricolour is the most pertinent one. In December 1929 Congress at its Lahore session adopted ‘Purna Swaraj’ or complete self-rule as the national goal and called upon the people to observe January 26, 1930 as Independence Day by displaying and honouring the Tricolour (the Tricolour was by consensus considered the flag of the national movement by this time). In response to this Hedgewar as chief issued a circular to all the RSS shakhas to worship the bhagwa jhanda (saffron flag) as the national flag.

Golwalkar, the most prominent ideologue of the RSS and Guru of many of present lot of RSS/BJP leaders while addressing a Gurupurnima gathering in Nagpur on July 14, 1946, stated that it was the saffron flag which in totality represented their great culture. It was the embodiment of God: “We firmly believe that in the end the whole nation will bow before this saffron flag.”^[6]

Even after independence when the Tricolour became the National Flag, it was the RSS which refused to accept it as the National Flag. Golwalkar while discussing the issue of the national flag in an essay entitled ‘Drifting and Drifting’ in the book Bunch of Thoughts, an RSS publication and collection of writings of Golwalkar, decried Tricolour in the following words: “Our leaders have set up a new flag for our country. Why did they do so? It is just a case of drifting and imitating….Ours is an ancient and great nation with a glorious past. Then, had we no flag of our own? Had we no national emblem at all these thousands of years? Undoubtedly, we had. Then why this utter void, this utter vacuum in our minds?”^[7]

The most shocking denigration of the National Flag by the RSS came just on the eve of India’s Independence. The RSS English organ Organizer (August 14, 1947) while demanding hoisting of saffron flag at the ramparts of Red Fort in Delhi, openly denigrated the choice of the Tri-colour as the National Flag in the following words: “the people who have come to power by the kick of fate may give in our hands the Tricolour but it never be respected and owned by Hindus. the word three is in itself an evil, and a flag having three colours will certainly produce a very bad psychological effect and is injurious to a country.”

RSS/HINDU MAHA SABHA SHAMELESSLY BETRYED FREEDOM STRUGGLE
The RSS/BJP governors of UP by enforcing celebration of Independence Day on the madrassas of UP are, in fact, attempting to cover-up their betrayal of the glorious united freedom struggle of Indian people. The RSS never participated in the freedom struggle and it was confessed by Guru Golwalkar who was boss of the organization 1940 onward. Non-cooperation Movement and Quit India Movement were two great milestones in the history of the Indian Freedom Movement and here is how he decried these movements.

“Definitely there are bound to be bad results of struggle. The boys became unruly after the 1920-21 movement. It is not an attempt to throw mud at the leaders. But these are inevitable products after the struggle. The matter is that we could not properly control these results. After 1942, people often started thinking that there was no need to think of the law.”^[8]

Thus, Golwalkar wanted the Indians to respect the draconian and repressive laws of the inhuman British rulers! Guruji also confessed how RSS kept away from the freedom movement.

“In 1942 also there was a strong sentiment in the hearts of many. At that time, too the routine work of Sangh continued. Sangh vowed not to do anything directly. However, upheaval (uthal-puthal) in the minds of Sangh volunteers continued. Sangh is an organization of inactive persons, their talks are useless, not only outsiders but also many of our volunteers did talk like this. They were greatly disgusted too.”^[9]

The Hindu Mahasabha led by RSS beloved, Savarkar, ran coalition governments with Muslim League in Bengal, Sind and NWFP when Congress was banned due to the launch of Quit India Movement. Shockingly, Syama Prasad Mookerjee, another Hindutva icon of RSS/BJP was deputy chief minister in the Muslim League ministry of Bengal.^[10]

It must have been the ideological reason that Golwalkar (RSS chief since 1940), Deendayal Upadhyay (prominent RSS cadre since 1937) and LK Advani (RSS activist since 1942) never participated in the freedom struggle.

Even the greatest Hindutva icon of the RSS/BJP, Savarkar wrote 4-5 mercy petitions to the British masters for release from Cellular Jail. Ultimately, he was released after 10 years whereas he had been sentenced for 50 years.

This discriminatory order doubting the patriotism of Muslims imposed by the RSS/BJP rulers of UP for madrasaas has, naturally, terrorized Muslims of UP and a strong sense of despair prevails amongst them. They are scared that this issue like cow will be used to physically target them and another spell of lynching and destruction will follow.

Saddest part is that the Muslim organizations which mushroom in UP and elsewhere have kept mum on this brazen attack. The discriminatory order was not challenged for being a serious cause of spreading hatred against common Muslims. Apart from challenging it, madrasaa administrations should have used this opportunity to the to equip the Muslim audiences with the anti-national history of the RSS/BJP rulers. If they announce that next August 15 (2018), the madrassas would discuss the treacherous anti-national role of the Hindutva gang while following this order, it may be consigned to the dustbin. But for it the madrasaas will have to prepare documents in Urdu specially focussing on the betrayal of freedom struggle by the Hindutva gang. Next August 15 is not too long away, the preparations must start now.

The post This Everyday Patriotism Agnipariksha (Trial by Fire) from Hindutva Needs an Innovative Response appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Image: PTI

English translation of the lead story published on the front page of the multi-edition of the Urdu daily, Inquilab on Thursday

The Yogi government has further hardened its stance towards madrasas in the state. Last week an official circular was sent to all madrasas, instructing them on how Independence Day was to be celebrated in their institutions. Now, despite the fact that most madrasas celebrated Independence Day with fervor and enthusiasm, and the spirit of patriotism was rekindled among the children, the state government continues to eye madrasas with suspicion. 

According to sources, the authorities have received complaints that though Independence Day was celebrated and the tricolor hoisted, instead of the national anthem, what was sung in some madrasas was poet-philosopher Mohammed Iqbal’s sarey jehan se achcha Hindustan hamara.

It is feared that stringent action is likely against such madrasas, including the prosecution of madrasa authorities under the draconian provisions of the National Security Act (NSA). This has triggered a mixed reaction among Muslims. While some are critical of the madrasa authorities who decided not to sing the national anthem, many Muslims blame the Yogi government for needlessly raking up an issue.

The city Qazi of Lucknow, Maulana Abul Irfan Miyan of Firangi Mahal said it was a strange government in power in UP which instead of concentrating its energies major concerns of the state is trying to keep people trapped in religious and sentimental issues. He wanted to know whether citizens were free to celebrate Independence in their own way or as per the diktat of the government.

The maulana also wanted to know which would be a fit case for invoking the National Security Act: not singing national anthem or lynching people in the name of the holy cow. He ended up asking the government not to target madrasas and asserted that Muslims do not need a certificate from anyone as regards their love for the country.

Meanwhile, the UP state spokesperson of the Congress, Hilal Naqvi said the government should know when and under what circumstances to invoke the NSA. Naqvi added that to begin with he was not prepared to believe that any madrasa was remiss in not celebrating Independence Day. Even if some madrasas were at fault, is it an offence that invites the provisions of NSA? He alleged that both the state and the central governments were resorting to such measures to hide their own failures in governance.

It may be noted that the national anthem was sung in most madrasas on Independence Day and the same was also videographed. But reports are circulating in the media that in some madrasas the national anthem was not sung and the government is now proposing to take legal action against them. The District Magistrate and the district police are reportedly compiling a list of madrasas where the national anthem was not sung. Reportedly Bareilly district is especially under the scanner.

According to reports, the national anthem was sung in most madrasas in central and eastern UP but in many places a video shoot of the same was not done. The authorities from such madrasas are being quizzed over why they did not ensure the video shoot despite clear instructions to that effect.

It may be recalled that the Qazi of Bareily, Maulana Asad Raza Khan had announced in advance that singing Jana, gana, mana… was against the teachings of Islam since there are some words in the national anthem which were un-Islamic.

According to sources, the government is determined to act against madrasas against which there is definite evidence of the national anthem not having been sung there.

The circular issued by the UP Madrasa Board to all madrasas had made it clear that the hoisting of the national flag and singing of national anthem were obligatory on Independence Day. Under the draconian provisions of the NSA, the government may detain any person for any period of time without stating the reasons for the same.
 

The post Action under draconian NSA likely against UP madrasas for not singing national anthem on Independence Day appeared first on SabrangIndia.