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Madrassas up in arms over Buddhadev's remarks

Amin Ahmed Babu in Kolkata

Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadev Bhattacharya has opened a Pandora's box by singling out private madrassas operating in the border areas with Bangladesh for fostering anti-national activities.

While the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party is ecstatic with the support from unexpected quarters for its long standing demand to regulate madrassas, the allies of the Left Front government are squirming at the sudden volte face of the chief minister.

The Left Front in a bid to control the damage caused by Bhattacharya's remarks called for an emergency meeting on February 6 and issued a statement that the chief minister's comments had been twisted out of context by the media.

A statement by the chief minister after the meeting said that he had wanted unregulated madrassas to be audited and brought within the mainstream.

"The government has been misunderstood and the chief minister was misquoted. He did not say the madrassas would be closed down," Biman Bose, chief of the ruling Left Front, said.

"What the chief minister said was that madrassas should be modernised and streamlined. The government did not say some madrassas were involved in terrorism or anti-national activities," Bose said, adding, "There are no plans to close down any unrecognised madrassa."

"We have not pinpointed any particular madrassa. We intend to upgrade and renew the syllabus of certain institutions (unregulated madrassas) so that the teaching is of good quality," Mohammed Salim, state minorities development minister, said.

Hundreds of madrassa students on Tuesday had taken out a public meeting demanding clarification of the government's stand.

The Kokata police, however, claim that on various occasions they have been able to link the involvement of small time private madrassas operating in the Indo-Bangla border to questionable activities.

The police also said that a few madrassa teachers during interrogation had acknowledged the involvement of the Pakistan Inter-Service Intelligence in setting up these madrassas.

But the students of such madrassas refuse to buy the police theory.

"Does a single wrongdoer make the whole institution and the system wrong?" Kamruzzama, general secretary of the West Bengal Madrassa Students Union, asked.

The union has asked the government to produce a white paper on the list of madrassas allegedly indulging in anti national activities.

"We are going to fight against this injustice. The government is going the BJP way," Fazlur Rehman, president of the Madrassas Students Union, said.

But home ministry statistics tell a different story. According to a ministry report more than 408 madrassas and 500 mosques have cropped up in the border districts in recent years.

The report said that many of them are being used to preach 'fundamentalism to the students'.

"We have always tried to bring this forth, but the state government is concerned only for their vote bank and their appeasement," state BJP vice president, Tathagat Roy, said.

Ironically, lost in the current controversy is the fact that West Bengal is the only state in the country to have recognised madrassa education till the tenth class (Aalim, which is considered equivalent to matric degree).

But Kamruzzama said that job opportunities are few for those who have acquired Aalim degree, with the government not allowing Aalim degree holders to compete for teaching posts in government madrassas, while at the same time not recognising higher degrees issued by private madrassas.

Kamruzzama demands recognition of the higher degrees issued by private madrassas, so as to compete in the job market.

"The courses has to be renewed first. Where the government madrassas have all facilities the private ones do not even have a knowledgeable tutor," according to Kamaruzzama.

"But this could not be the reason enough to malign the entire religious education system," he said.

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