UP: Survey to be conducted in unrecognized madrassas

It’s an undeniable fact that extremist groups have developed countless religious institutions in the country to spread their network of Jihad. Nonetheless, the authority holders like CM Yogi Adityanath are taking stringent approaches to counter terror activities taking place in his state. That is what became the reason for him surveying madrassas.

Yogi’s model of surveying

Recently, the Uttar Pradesh government has ordered a survey to be conducted in unrecognized madrassas to determine the information regarding the number of students, teachers, curriculum, and its affiliation with any non-government organizations. CM Yogi Adityanath’s government has ordered to conduct this survey by October 5.

The reason for National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR), Government of India conducting the survey includes the need to ensure the basic facilities of the students of madrassas. Additionally, in light of rules included in the Department of Secondary Education and Basic Education, Danish Azad Ansari, the Minister of State for Minority Welfare, Muslim Waqf and Waqf Department opined that the order also holds to provide maternity leave and child care leave to women working in madrassas.

The survey team will include officials of the Sub Divisional Magistrate (SDM), Basic Shiksha Adhikari (BSA), and District Minority Officers. Clarifying the details, the team is instructed to hand over the survey report to the Additional District Magistrate (ADM), following which ADM will present the combined reports to the District Magistrates (DMs).

On the other hand, while retaliating, the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) Chief Asaduddin Owaisi tried to hit out against CM Yogi Adityanath-led Uttar Pradesh Government. He said, “Madrassas are as per Article 30 then why has UP government ordered the survey? It’s not a survey but a mini-NRC. Some madrassas are under the UP madrassa board. Govt can’t interfere with our rights under Art 30. They just want to harass Muslims.”

The spewing of islamic radicatlisation

India is a secular democratic country where people across religions have the freedom to practice their religion, tradition or creed. However, in light to freedom, it should not lead to extremist activities or terror funding.

As reported by TFI, many political observers have analyzed that some radical institutions often teach violent and abominable acts. While addressing this issue, Kerala Governor, Arif Mohammad Khan, earlier talked about the rampant rise of radicalization and held that the Madrassas are responsible for it.

These Islamic institutions are in many cases used for religious indoctrination. Religious ‘preachers’ have been fuelling radicalism, and hatred for other communities from times immemorial. Madrassas and mosques have become a safe haven for such unlawful activities as law enforcement agencies have little access to them. Furthermore, the political structure of the State ensures that any lawful administrative actions on such illegal religious activities have become a direct threat to the freedom of religion.

Apart from this, madrassas often get involved in various criminal activities which include heinous atrocities on children by the Maulvis. Hence, there has been continuous demand to either shut down those Madrassas that had been involved in radicalising young kids or continuously reform these Madrassas. In light to curb this menace Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma had also taken some stringent measures on illegal madrassas.

Assam is curbing the radicalisation

Assam is a state which share its border with Bangladesh which makes it prone to the problems of illegal migrants and religious radicalism. These illegal migrants have a tendendency to deliberatly get into the local population and create law and order issues. Further, they try to change the demographic composition of the state to cause communal tensions.

Therefore, to curb the menace, the assam government adopted strict measures to provide modern education to poor kids instead of keeping them in a vicious cycle. This is the reason it had passed the law to shut down all the government-run Madrassas, which will be later converted to general schools.

As recently reported by TFI, a madrasa in Assam’s Barpeta district was demolished by the district administration over the allegations of its involvement in anti-national activities. In addition, CM Himants Biswa Sarma had said, “This is the second Madrasa we evicted as they were not running as an institution but were running as a terrorist hub. I don’t want to generalize, but we investigate & take appropriate action when a complaint of fundamentalism comes.”

All in all, there is an intrinsic need to control the continuous spreading of terrorist activities from these extremist institutions. Therefore, both the Chief Ministers of Uttar Pradesh and Assam are working towards establishing peace and harmony in the country. Thus, after CM Sarma, CM Yogi is surveying the radical institutions.