Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Azam Khan sparked a fresh controversy by saying that “madrasas do not breed a nature like that of Nathuram Godse or a personality like Pragya Singh Thakur”.
Nathuram Godse assassinated Mahatma Gandhi while Pragya Singh Thakur (present BJP MP from Bhopal), is an accused in Malegaon blast case.
When asked to reply to Centre’s decision to connect madrasas to mainstream education, Azam Khan added, “Madrasas don’t breed a nature like that of Nathuram Godse or a personality like Pragya Thakur.
See that first, announce that those propagating thoughts of Nathuram Godsewill be declared enemies of democracy, those convicted for terror activities won’t be rewarded.”
Azam Khan, who is well known for delivering such controversial statements, added that if the central government wants to assist madrasas then they should raise their standard.
“Religious teachings are imparted at madrasas. At the very same madrasas, English, Hindi and Maths are taught. This has always been done. If you want to help, improve their standard. Build buildings for madrasas, provide them furniture and midday meal facility,” Azam Khan said on Tuesday.
While the Samajwadi leader seemed critical of the Centre’s decision of connecting madrasas with mainstream education for the improvement of children studying in the Islamic seminaries, Muslim clerics welcomed it.
Union Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, who announced the scheme on Tuesday, said, “Madrasas are in large number across the country. They will be connected with formal education and mainstream education so that those children studying there can also contribute to the development of society.”
“Madrasa teachers across the country will be given training from various institutions in mainstream subjects such as Hindi, English, math, science, computer, etc so that they can impart mainstream education to the madrasa students. This programme will be launched next month,” Naqvi wrote on Twitter.
The modernisation of madrasas is in line with PM Narendra Modi’s strategy that he laid out in the build-up to the general elections in 2014.
“Hold Quran in one hand and computer in other,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said.