BJP Government Keen on Enforcing Hindutva Agenda

The BJP government is keen on enforcing its Hindutva agenda in the country. Imposing Surya Namaskar, Yoga, Vande Mataram, etc. through school curriculum, cancelling the posts of Urdu teachers, massive changes in school syllabus glorifying Hindu heroes, changing the names of various places and roads, adding “Adarsh” before the names of government schools and now investigation of Madrasas by police are a few examples.
A pro forma is being distributed by the local police to the madrasas in Rajasthan. The pro forma has been issued with signature of the Superintendent of Police, addressed to the SHOs and has been marked as ‘secret’ on its right upper corner. The columns to be filled in are – Name of the Madrasa, Name of the owner/operator with father’s name, permanent address, mobile No., number of students, outsiders and locals, either it is registered or not, name and full details of the teachers/maulvis, ideology of the institution (Shia, Sunni, Deobandi, Barelvi, etc.), about Tablighi Jamaat, either they visit the madrasa or not, whether it is built on govt., private or rented land, etc.
“Why investigation by the police? Are there criminals living in the madrasas? In fact, the state government wants to tarnish the image of Muslims and madrasas by putting Muslims and madrasas into suspicious book. They are asking the ideology (maslak) of the madrasas just to put them under certain brands,” said Engineer Khurshid Husain, state chief of Jamaat-e-Islami Hind Rajasthan.
“The madrasas are alternative means of education, rendering their services to the poor and needy children. Their sole resources are Zakat and donations by the Muslim community. They are indeed assisting the Government by imparting free education to the poor and orphan kids. Most of them are now teaching government syllabus along with the religious one and many of the madrasa students have graduated, post graduated and done their doctorate from different universities and a number of them are serving in various public and private sectors,” he added.
Mr. Khurshid further said that Muslims love their country and they don’t need any certificate for that. What do they want by pointing a finger of suspicion towards Muslims? Nobody has any right to doubt our loyalty.
Meanwhile, the HRD Minister Rajendra Singh Rathore has given clarification on behalf of the state government that this is a usual process being carried out since the Congress regime. He gave clarification to the media persons, following opposition of the said investigation by Muslim organisations in the state.
“It is baseless. Once during the BJP regime led by Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, an enquiry was launched by the police, which ended giving clean chit to the madrasas, i.e. no illegal or anti-national activities are going on in the madrasas. We didn’t approve even that, the educational institutions must not be investigated by the police, instead, these should be surveyed and examined by the education department only for their help and development. At that time, Chief Minister B.S. Shekhawat, after thoroughly investigating, declared that no suspicious activities were found in the madrasas. Now again the same exercise is being done. This is nothing other than sullying the image of Muslims and their educational institutions that will build an atmosphere of panic and sense of guilt among them. That is what is desired by the RSS in order to woo the Hindu voters,” said Mr. Khurshid Husain.
Rathore informed the media that about 3,141 registered and 1000 unregistered madrasas are being run in the state. Giving explanation about asking the ideology, he said that it was included in the older pro forma; so it is being repeated, also that we have omitted other points about sources of income, number of teachers, communication facilities, etc. He said, while replying to the journalists, that when two boys who were shackled by their madrasa teacher were brought to the police, the matter was raised by MLA Gyan Dev Ahuja in the assembly and launching an investigation was deemed necessary.
However, Muslim organisations, including Jamaat-e-Islami Hind, are of the opinion that a survey may be conducted by Madrasa Board or Education Department, if required at all. JIH Rajasthan Chief Er. Khurshid Husain said that the ideology followed by a person or an institution is solely their personal matter and nobody has any right to enquire about that. He also condemned the enquiry about coming of Tablighi Jamaat into the madrasas. “This is breech of our constitutional right of Freedom to Religion,” he said.
A protest was also staged by an organisation of madrasa para teachers on 11 Apr. “This kind of investigation will not be tolerated,” said Ameen Qayamkhani, President Rajasthan Urdu Teachers Association.
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