Assam Tables Bill To End State-Run Madrassas

The Assam government on Monday tabled a Bill in the Legislative Assembly to abolish all state-run Madrassas by converting them into general schools from April 1 next year.

Despite a united opposition raising objections on the tabling of the Bill, Education Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma introduced The Assam Repealing Bill, 2020 on the first day of the three-day winter session.

The legislation proposes to abolish the two existing Acts -- The Assam Madrassa Education (Provincialisation) Act, 1995 and The Assam Madrassa Education (Provincialisation of Services of Employees and Re-Organisation of Madrassa Educational Institutions) Act, 2018.

"This bill is not to control and repeal the private Madrassas," Mr Sarma said, adding inclusion of the word "private" in the ''statement of objects and reasons'' of the bill was a mistake.

The Assam cabinet had on December 13 approved a proposal to close down all Madrassas and Sanskrit Tols (schools) however, the legislation brought in the assembly during the day did not contain anything related to the Sanskrit tols and the education minister also did not mention anything about it.

The minister said in the bill that all Madrassa institutes will be converted into upper primary, high and higher secondary schools with no change of status, pay, allowances and service conditions of the teaching and non-teaching staff.

There are 610 state-run Madrassas across Assam with the government spending Rs 260 crore annually, Mr Sarma had said earlier.

In April 2018, the Education Minister had brought many private Madrassas under the government ambit by introducing The Assam Madrassa Education (Provincialisation of Services of Employees and Re-Organisation of Madrassa Educational Institutions) Act, 2018.

The BJP-led alliance-controlled Assam Assembly had enacted the law unanimously in 2018.

Regarding Sanskrit tols, Mr Sarma had said in October last that they would be handed over to Kumar Bhaskar Varma Sanskrit and Ancient Studies University and its infrastructure would be converted into centres of learning and research, where Indian culture, civilisation and nationalism would be studied.

As soon as Mr Sarma sought permission to introduce The Assam  Repealing Bill Monday, Congress and AIUDF members objected to
tabling of the proposed law and questioned the intention of the government.

Congress MLA Nurul Huda said Madrassas teach Arabic language apart from other general subjects and learning a language cannot be termed communal.

"Because of learning Arabic, many youths have got lucrative jobs in Arab countries and they are contributing to Indian economy by sending foreign exchanges," he added.

His party colleague Sherman Ali Ahmed said learning of Arabic will open job opportunities in 52 countries and already many Hindus from other states like Kerala are earning lakhs of rupees by working in such places.

Another Congress member Kamalakhya Dey Purkayastha said Prime Minister Narendra Modi had suggested modernisation of Madrassas and not abolishing them.

"I don't know why this bill is brought. It will change the atmosphere of Assam. This bill is aimed at polarisation of votes on religious lines," he alleged.

AIUDF MLA Rafiqul Islam said Mr Sarma himself had provincialised these Madrassas in 2018 and now "he is killing his own baby".

"Even Modi ji has said there should be computer in one hand and Quran on the other. Yogi (Adityanath) is doing the same in UP and allotted hundreds of crores for Madrassas," he added.