Guwahati: Assam Education Minister and senior BJP leader, Dr. Himanta Biswa Sarma on Thursday stated that the state government cannot spend public money on religion-based scriptures.
Speaking to Republic TV Editor-in-chief Arnab Goswami on closing madrassas in the state from November, Dr. Sarma said, “Assam runs nearly a thousand madrassas and spends Rs. 260 crore annually on this. We have examined this and found that the state should not involve in the teaching of the Quran. That is not our job.”
“It is not the job of a government to run institutions that teach religious scriptures and shutting down state-run madrassas and Sanskrit Tols is a secular act”, said Dr. Sarma
“Assam’s Bharatiya Janata Party government will issue a notification regarding shutting down of all state-run madrassas and Sanskrit Tols in November. Madrassas are educational institutions where the Quran and the Islamic sacred law is taught along with mathematics, grammar, poetry, and history. Around 148 contractual teachers working in these madrassas are likely to be shifted to schools under general secondary education,” stated Himanta Biswa Sarma.
Dr. Sarma also highlighted the demands to teach Bhagavad Gita and the Holy Bible in the schools from other organisations and asserted that the government shall not use taxpayer funds to teach particular religious scripts.
The All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) chief Badruddin Ajmal has declared that if the BJP-led government shuts down government-run madrassas, his party would re-open them after winning the next year’s Assembly elections.
Commenting on Ajmal’s statement Dr. Sarma said, “If Ajmal thought that BJP is going to request votes from the Muslim community as Muslims, it is wrong. We will ask for votes from Indian citizens and not by religion.”
Earlier, Dr. Sarma said that the state-run madrassas in Assam will either be converted into regular schools or they will be shut down, after teachers are transferred to schools, following a notification which will be released in November this year.
