GUWAHATI: The Assam government’s decision to close down Madrassas has not gone down well with the members of the Muslim community. They feel that it has hurt the sentiments of their community.
Recently, state education minister Himanta Biswa Sarma had said that the government will shut down all government-run Madrassas as well as Sanskrit Tols within the next 4-5 months. He had added that the Madrassas will be modernised and will be converted into high schools.
Several people from the minority community feel that the BJP-led government is deliberately taking such decisions to make Muslims feel like second class citizens in their home state.
“We are indigenous Assamese Muslims and have always lived together with people from other communities with a sense of equality and brotherhood. However, with the government bringing in such new policies, it seems like they are discriminating against the Muslims,” said Imran Rasul, a senior citizen of Guwahati.
Further, another member of the community told G Plus that the BJP-government is almost resorting to “bullying” in order to pass their decisions which suit their larger agenda.
“Instead of focussing on development works and welfare of people, it feels as if the government is only concerned about religion and other such issues. The politicians should remember that the people of Assam had voted for them with the hopes that they would help in bringing about a better standard of living for them, but in vain,” said another Guwahatian on the condition of anonymity.
On the other hand, it is to be mentioned that in contrast the Uttar Pradesh government in its recently-presented 2020-21 budget, Yogi Adityanath government has allocated a total of Rs 479 crore has been allocated for Madrassas and ‘maktabs’. Further, the UP government made a provision of Rs 459 crore for modernisation of Arabic-Persian Madrassas.
G Plus spoke to the chairman of the State Madrassa Education Board, Imran Hussain, who said that they have not received any official communication regarding shutting down of madrassas form the state government yet.
“Till now we have only heard about the news through the media and have not received any official letter regarding the same and it won’t be appropriate to comment on the matter till we receive an official communication from the state government,” mentioned Hussain.