The ideological rift within the NDA in Bihar has once again come to the fore as a section of BJP leaders objected to Urdu medium schools in Muslim-majority districts being closed on Fridays and holding classes on Sundays.
Education department officials are silent on the matter. However, sources in the department, who spoke on condition of anonymity, attributed the controversy to the notices allegedly issued by the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights to the governments of Bihar and Jharkhand recently. give
NCPCR has tried to find out whether any Government Communications Commission is making such an arrangement. He said that Urdu medium schools, especially in districts with a large Muslim population, have been closed on Fridays for many years. A number of local BJP leaders, who saw a glimpse of progress, gave statements to the media questioning the conflation of religion with education, an apparent reference to the avid Friday prayers. Friday is considered blessed among Muslims.
This, understandably, angered Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s JD(U), which incidentally held the education portfolio ever since it came to power, in alliance with the BJP, more than 15 years ago. He kept it to himself. We politicians should not raise a storm over every trivial matter. JD(U) Parliamentary Board President Upinder Kushwaha said that people should keep in mind that Sanskrit Mahavidyalayas also have holidays on Pratipada and Ashtami dates of every month as per Hindu calendar.
Former chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi’s Bharatiya Awam Morcha, seen as the JD(U)’s B team, was angry. Why do people get stomach aches when schools are closed on Fridays? Have the students’ guardians complained? There is no loss of learning. As in other places, classes are held six days a week in such schools. HAM Chief Spokesperson Danish Rizwan questioned that if there is such a problem on Friday, then why institutions remain closed on that day in Jammu and Kashmir.
BJP hardliners, however, appeared to be in a no-holds-barred mood. Party MP and RSS ideologue Rakesh Sinha took to Twitter on Friday calling the efforts to defend school holidays illogical. Sinha asked why Turkey, which has a 99% Muslim population, observes a holiday on Sunday, but Kishanganj does so on Friday.
Kishanganj is the only district in Bihar where Muslims are the majority. According to sources in the education department, the concentration of such schools is in the adjacent districts of Arria, Katihar and Purnia, apart from Kishanganj. Interestingly, however, BJP ministers have avoided getting into a controversy that could put them at loggerheads with the chief minister, a socialist who has ideological distance with the saffron party despite a three-decade-old political alliance. has been maintained.
When Deputy CM Turkeshwar Prasad, who is also Katihar MLA, was asked about the issue, he tried to downplay the issue. Every institution run by the governments, be it at the Center or in the states, issues guidelines regarding holidays. No organization goes against them. The Education Department is in the grip of this matter. Prasad said that if anything has been done against the rules, it will be rectified.
The Deputy Chief Minister was also asked whether since the matter involved his district, he had also spoken to senior JD(U) leader, Education Minister Vijay Kumar Chaudhary. I need not interfere. Prasad said that the education department is competent to look into the matter and do whatever is appropriate.
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