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.

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While rejecting the recommendation of the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) to shift non-Muslim students to other educational institutions from madrasas, UP Madrasa Board has decided to implement the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) syllabus from the upcoming session.

The decision to this effect was taken collectively by the board members at a meeting presided over by Board chairman Iftikhar Ahmed Javed announced to the media on Wednesday, January 18. The UP Madrasa Board also decided to introduce the NCERT syllabus in recognised and state-aided madrasas in a phased manner in the upcoming session. “Madrassa children will also study the NCERT syllabus from his year. Modern education will be given along with Dinee Talim (religious education),” said Javed.

He added that in the new academic year, the focus of UP Madrasas will be more on ‘modern’ education through modern tools of pedagogy. He also stated that the board would work out a system for an easy distribution of uniforms to madrasa students from class I to VIII by the state basic education department.

In November 2022, the Uttar Pradesh (UP)  Madrassa Education Board had publicly expressed its reservation to the interference of officers of the education department in the day-to-day working of madrassas in the state, which has led to a situation of discomfort in these institutions. In this connection, the Board chairman Dr Iftikhar Ahmed Javed, also told the media: “Officials of the state education department are not the competent authority to inspect the madrassas run by the department of minority welfare.

“After the formation of the minority welfare department in 1995, all work of the madrassas, managed by the education department till then, was transferred to the minority welfare department.

“Later, the Uttar Pradesh Madrassa Education Council Act, 2004, was made through which the Uttar Pradesh Non-Government Arabic and Persian Madrassa Recognition, Administration and Service Regulations 2016 were made. Since then, the district madrassa education officer became the district minority welfare officer.

“As per the arrangement made in the Uttar Pradesh Madrassa Education Board Act 2004 and Regulations 2016, neither inspection nor notice will be given to any madrassa by any officer of any department other than the minority welfare department.”

NCPPR’s controversial recommendations

Opposing the NCPCR’s recent ‘recommendation’, the Board chairman said it was a discriminatory practice that was against the tenets of the Madrasa Education Board. The students taking education cannot be differentiated on the basis of religion.

“We follow the ideology ‘Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas’ (the progress and development of all) of Prime Minister Narendra Modi 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,” said Javed. “The madrasa education board unanimously rejected the NCPCR recommendations,” he added.

Controversially, in December last year, the NCPCR had written to Chief Secretaries of all states and UTs, recommending a detailed inquiry into all government-funded and recognised madrasas admitting non-Muslim children.  The Commission had also recommended all non-Muslim children studying in madrasas be admitted to other schools after the inquiry.

NCPCR Chairperson Priyank Kanoongo, in a letter written in December, last year, to all chief secretaries, had noted that children belonging to non-Muslim communities were attending government-funded or recognised madrassas. “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.

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

UP: After Madrasas, UP Govt to Survey Waqf Properties

The decision of the Adityanath-led UP government to survey Waqf properties in September 2022 was met with disquiet and concern by the state’s minority community.

There are 162,229 Waqf properties, including 1,50,000 registered with Sunni Central Waqf Board and 12,229 with Shia Central Waqf Board in UP, with the government occupying quite a few of these in the state. Danish Azad Ansari, Minister of State for Minority Welfare and Waqf, had then however termed the exercise a “normal departmental process”, saying it has nothing to do with other Waqf properties.

The decision had been announced amidst the ongoing surveys of unrecognised madrasas across Uttar Pradesh, the Yogi Adityanath government has ordered a survey of properties managed by Sunni and Shia Central Waqf Boards in what the government says is an attempt aimed at preventing illegal encroachment of the properties in the state. It has also cancelled a 1989 government order under which uncultivable land at several places was “illegally registered” as Waqf property. 

In a directive issued by the Chief Minister, he had “asked” all district magistrates and commissioners to scrutinise and demarcate Waqf properties in the revenue records. The directive came in response to a letter written by the state minority affairs ministry that said that several properties have been illegally occupied by Waqf boards. Sources say that the survey aims to stop “illegal possession and sale” of Waqf properties.

The official communication –a letter –had at the time, four months ago, been sent to commissioners and district magistrates by Shakeel Ahmed Siddiqui, deputy secretary, UP government. It had reportedly stated that several Waqf authorities had “neglected the regulations regarding property registration as per the Waqf Act-1995 and the UP Muslim Waqf Act of 1960. In 1989”. An order was also issued to properly register such properties in the revenue records. In this letter, Siddiqui reportedly alleged there were pieces of barren land that were registered as Waqf property by “manipulating” provisions of the Uttar Pradesh Muslim Waqf Act, 1960.

Thereafter, concurrently, in the order issued by the government, it has been said there is no provision in the Act for the registration of properties without following due process. Siddiqui’s letter had stated that according to the Act, only those properties come under the category of Waqf that are donated for religious and welfare work according to Muslim law and customs.

As per the directive, the state government has said that cemetery, mosque and idgah land should be demarcated because, on the basis of the 1989 ordinance, many such lands registered as banjar (barren), usar (uncultivable), and bhita (mound) were declared as Waqf properties. Also, gram sabha and municipal councils had land that could be used for the general public but were actually “occupied by Waqf boards”, it said. However, any change in management and nature of these areas is prohibited under the 1989 order.

Historically, waqf properties are donated to be used for religious or pious purposes, such as building mosque, cemetery, orphanage or hospital.

At the heart of the UP government’s latest move is a 1989 government order, under which uncultivable land at several places was “illegally registered” as Waqf property, the PTI had reported quoting an official. This has been revoked by the government with immediate effect with divisional commissioners and district magistrates being asked to examine all proceedings taken under the order to “correct revenue records” accordingly. 

“Waqf properties are very important and they are god’s property with nobody having the right to illegally occupy it. The state government, with a noble intention, has started a survey and we have given orders to first identify the Waqf properties and then take further action,” Dharam Pal Singh, minister for minority welfare, Muslim Waqf and Haj, told media persons.

Under Islamic law and customs, properties that are donated for religious and welfare work come under the category of Waqf, which means a charitable, religious endowment. Once donated, it is treated as “god’s property”. There are 162,229 Waqf properties, including 1,50,000 registered with the Sunni Central Waqf Board and 12,229 with the Shia Central Waqf Board in Uttar Pradesh.

Community React to Order

Reacting to the 2022 directives, senior members of All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) had explained how these moves amounted to a counter-attack by the state administration since, over the last decade especially, it was the Waqf Board that had been demanding that all government offices or any Waqf property encroached by any organisation or allotted by the government should either be handed over to the Waqf Board or rent be paid as per market rate!

Besides, the dual pronged attack by the aggressive UP government, first on Madrassas and then on Waqf Board land caused a disquiet in the community. Tracing the history of both mismanagement of properties and the government’s hostility the member had stated that a fair and transparent streamlining was for long being demanded by the community.

The 2022 ongoing survey of private madrasas across Uttar Pradesh was hotly debated. However, Darul Uloom Deoband, an Islamic seminary, organised an ‘Ijlas’ (conference) on September 18 were the heads of over 250 major madrasas from across the state attended the event and said it had no objection to the survey of private madrasas. However, the seminary noted that the entire system of madrasas —Islamic religious schools— should not be disregarded just because some institutions are found to have violated rules.

The government had then justified the act, claiming that it conducted surveys of “unrecognised and private madrasas” to gather information about the number of teachers, curriculum, and basic facilities available there, among other factors.

December 2022

Then at the end of last year, once again another issue arose when the police –in a completely autocratic act –in Faridpur, Bareilly booked the school principal and a para teacher of a government higher primary school, after the local unit of Vishwa Hindu Parishad accused Siddiqui and Waziruddin of hurting “religious sentiments” of people in “a Hindu-dominated area by reciting madrassa-type prayers in the school”. The poem also known as Bachche ki Dua, was composed by Muhammad Iqbal in 1902 and its first verse has also been used in a song in a Hindi movie called ‘Raazi’.

The VHP raised objection on the line: mere allah burai se bachaana mujhko’. (O God! protect me from the evil ways). The VHP’s city president Sompal Rathore on whose instance the FIR was filed, alleged that school principal Nahid Siddiqui and Shiksha Mitra (teacher) Waziruddin were trying to convert the students and that students who protested against such prayers were threatened.

At the time, in an opinion piece in Indian Express, Devyani Onial wrote that the Urdu poem talks about a child’s wish for a life like a candle (shama), that banishes darkness from the world (door duniya ka mere dum se andhera ho jaye) and brings light to all corners (har jagah mere chamakne se ujala ho jai). It talks about protecting the poor (garibon ki himayat karna) and loving the weak (dard mandon se zaifon se mohabbat karna). She wrote,

“Before this, no one who had sung it had thought of it as a religious prayer. Children who followed faiths other than Islam neither paused nor stopped at the word “Allah”; everyone sang along, praying to God, asking him to keep us on the right path (nek jo raah ho us raah pe chalana mujhko). But in times when Urdu, the language, has become Muslim and the colour orange Hindu, what chance does a line like that have in an orange-lit India?”

The entire poem written by Mohammad Iqbal reads as follows:

lab pe aatī hai duā ban ke tamannā merī

zindagī sham.a kī sūrat ho ḳhudāyā merī!

duur duniyā kā mire dam se añdherā ho jaa.e!

har jagah mere chamakne se ujālā ho jaa.e!

ho mire dam se yūñhī mere vatan kī zīnat

jis tarah phuul se hotī hai chaman kī zīnat

zindagī ho mirī parvāne kī sūrat yā-rab

ilm kī sham.a se ho mujh ko mohabbat yā-rab

ho mirā kaam ġharīboñ kī himāyat karnā

dard-mandoñ se za.īfoñ se mohabbat karnā

mire allāh! burā.ī se bachānā mujh ko

nek jo raah ho us rah pe chalānā mujh ko

(Based on reports in PTI, New Indian Express, Indian Express, Newsclick and Sabrangindia)

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UP: After Madrasas, Yogi Govt to Survey Waqf Properties; Muslim Citizens Doubt ‘Intention’

UP: After Madrasas, Yogi Govt to Survey Waqf Properties; Muslim Citizens Doubt ‘Intention’

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Image: Amar Ujala

 After the duo left, the student picked up the rat poison wrapper left behind by them and alerted the warden. “The water supply area was immediately cordoned off, and students were asked to drink wa ter from other tanks in the premises,“ the warden told TOI. Chief medical officer at Aligarh’s J N Medical College, Dr Ehtisham Ahmad, said that though rat poison can’t prove fatal to human beings until it is mixed with an anticoagulant (substance that prevents or reduces coagulation of blood), it could have made the students sick. “ A lot, however, would depend on the quantity of rat poison mixed in the water,“ he added.
 

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All Madrassas in UP  will be compelled under this directive to have all August 15,Independence Day celebrations monitored through video graph. The aim is claimed to be to determine a Madrassas Ideology but given the selective intrusion by government,  it is nothing  but a major Italian slur on minority institutions. 

Stiff opposition  to this move by the Madrassa Board is already mounting. It all began with a letter dated August 3 from the Madrassa Parishad Board to the minority officer in the district administration.  This communication stated at in every Madrassa  in  the state,  at 8 am on August  15, Flag hoisting ceremony  must be held and between  8 and 10 am martyrs should be paid respects to. 

Rahul Gupta, registrar of the UP Madrasa Education Board, defended the government’s decision. “The directions are unnecessarily being misread by a section. Photography and videography are to record novel ideas, if any , adopted by madrassas during celebrations. Those things can be repeated in other madrassas next year,“ Gupta said. Rahul Gupta, registrar of the UP Madrasa Education Bo ard, defended the order to madrassas to film Independence Day events, saying, “We have very noble and clear intentions regarding this. It is wrong to say that madrassas are being targeted through these directions.“

PTI quoted Maulana Khalid Rashid Mahali, member of All India Muslim Personal Law Board, lodging a protest. Questioning the need for the directive and asking why madrassas had been singled out, the cleric said, “If it is only to madrassas, does it mean our patriotism is being suspected?“ CPM’s Brinda Karat said, “I believe these coercive steps in the name of nationalism are shameful. It is ridiculous that it comes from people who have never been part of the freedom struggle and are imposing fake nationalism.“ Defending the decision, BJP spokesperson G V L Narasimha Rao, said, “At a time when the spectre of radical Islam is a threat to the community , Muslims should welcome the move rather than place religion over nation. Respect for national symbols is non-negotiable.“

Narsimha said mindless minority appeasement for decades has degenerated to an extent that even celebrating I-Day is seen through a communal prism by rabid elements in the Muslim community and the political class. “It is the same divisive mindset that led to the partition,“ said Narsimha.

The controversial circular of UP Madrassa Education Board, which comes under the minority welfare department of the UP go vernment, has been sent to around 8,500 government-aided madrasas, including 507, whose teachers are on government payroll. The rest get assistance under the state government’s madrassa modernisation scheme, said RP Singh, joint director, minority welfare. The board has said the idea behind the decision was to make sure “that the best functions can be repeated in future“. While such circulars have been issued in the past too, this one differs in demanding that the celebrations be videographed, ostensibly to replicate the betterorganized functions in future.

Muslim teachers accused the government of subjecting them to a patriotism test. Ajaz Ahmed, national president of the Islamic Madrasa Modernisation Teachers Association of India said, “We are being asked to submit proof of these events. It is like asking us to prove our nationalism and patriotism. “We hoist the tri-colour on I-Day and R-Day and sing our national anthem in all madrasas since long and will do so this time too,“ he added. Similar sentiments were aired by Maulana Saif Abbas, who runs Madrasa Abu Talib in Lucknow.“Rashtragaan is a regular feature at our madrassas on I-Day and RDay . By asking us to submit video proof, the government has declared that they doubt our patriotism,“ the Shia cleric said.

Maulana Khalid Rasheed said, “The community has been an integral part of the freedom movement. Why has the government not issued similar directives to all government-aided schools and singled out madrassas?“ he asked.
Sanjay Sinha, secretary of the Basic Education Council, said, “It’s a routine exercise to issue a letter ahead of importance days like Independence Day . This year, too, a letter asking schools to carry out tree plantation, reciting of national anthem, hoisting of national flag has been drafted. The letter will reach schools on August12.Students should be told the significance of I-Day. But no provision of videography has been written in the letter.“

Maulana Arshad Madani, national president of the Deobandbased Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind, said, “The directions have been issued by people of a particular mindset who can never accept the fact that Muslims can also be loyal Indians.They never realise our forefathers have also shed blood for the nation’s independence and that we too love this land like others. They always look for excuses to malign our reputation, often by labelling us terrorists. This photography or videography is also part of the campaign to instil fear in the minds of Muslim students that big brother is watching you always.“
 

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