Ahead of the by-polls in Uttar Pradesh and on the day when the Election Commission announced schedule for the proposed elections, a minister in Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s cabinet made a provocative statement saying that subjects like mathematics and science will also be taught in all the madrasas (Muslim schools of thought) in the state so to help Muslims students became an officer instead of becoming a moulvi of a mosque.
The minister’s statement came on the day when the Election Commission announced the schedule for the by-polls of one Lok Sabha and two Assembly constituencies of Muzaffarnagar district.
Claiming that the move is a part of PM Modi’s ‘New Indian Vision’, the Minister for Minority Welfare Dharampal Singh said, “A school and Hospital will be established by clearing all the encroachments over the wakf land.”
“Most of the wakf land was encroached upon but will clear the same and build public oriented facilities like schools, hospitals and parks,” said the minister. He was addressing the media persons at Lucknow after chairing a review meeting on Tuesday.
Apart from regular syllabus, he said, subjects like mathematics, science, social sciences and Hindi will be thought to the children in madrasas as part of the PM’s vision who wants to see Quran in one hand and laptop in other hand of the Muslim students to that they could get admissions into Indian Administrative Services and district schools.
“Let these children serve the society or become doctors and engineers instead of becoming a moulvi after pursuing religious centric teachings in madrasas.
It is pertinent to mention here that majority of Muslim families in Uttar Pradesh send their children to madrasas where they follow religious protocol and taught Islamic teachings. Recently scores of Muslim students pursue and crack civil services with flying colours despite being targeted as less informed children as they completed their primary education from madrasas.
As far as the madrasas are concerned, some of them are run through grants released by the government while others perform through the generous donations being collected from the general public.
However, questioning the donations being received by these madrasas and linking it with terror funding cases, the Yogi Adityanath led BJP government is targeting the madrasas in the name of conducting survey to establish how efficient they are working.
