"Terrorism is not taught at Madrassas, former president of India emerged from one," Association in Cachar writes to president

The government has tabled “The Assam Repealing Bill 2020” and it got passed in the assembly. The bill has been introduced by education minister, Himanta Biswa Sarma to abolish all state-run Madrassas and turn them into general government schools with effect from April 1, 2021.

The bill is now waiting for an ascent from the governor and then it will be enacted as a law of the land. Madrassas will be abolished by abolishing 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.

Assam Madrassa Teachers Association (AMTA) has submitted a memorandum addressing the president of India Ram Nath Kovind. Through the deputy commissioner’s office, the memorandum was submitted by Cachar district president of the association, Noor Ahmed Laskar. He was accompanied by district secretary Farooq Ahmed, Qutub Uddin and Jainul Haque Ahmed among many others.

They stated that the government is abolishing the Madrassas provincialised under the government of Assam for “political benefit”. They have appealed to the president of India to intervene and stop this bill from becoming law as it attacks the “Right to education”.

They have also alleged that many a time, the education minister, Himanta Biswa Sarma indicated with his speeches that Madrassas are for religious education and often teach terrorism, “Terrorism is not taught at Madrassas, former president of India Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed emerged from one of the Madrassas. There are many other engineers, doctors, social workers who were taught at Madrassas and have now devoted themselves for the greater good of the nation,” AMTA stated.

For the records, according to Britannica, son of an army doctor from Assam, Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed was educated in India and studied history at the University of Cambridge, graduating in 1927. After returning to India, he was elected to the Assam legislature (1935). As Assam’s minister of finance and revenue in 1938, he was responsible for some radical taxation measures. On the outbreak of World War II in 1939, the Indian National Congress party had a confrontation with British power, and Ahmed was jailed for a year. Soon after release, he was again imprisoned for another three and a half years, being released in April 1945. In 1946 he was appointed advocate general of Assam and held the post for six years.

“After a term in the national Parliament, he returned to Assam politics until Prime Minister Indira Gandhi included him in her first cabinet in January 1966. He held a variety of portfolios—irrigation and power, education, industrial development, and agriculture. Ahmed became India’s fifth president in 1974. He died of a heart attack in February 1977,” states Britannica’s records.

Considering these issues, the AMTA has urged the president of India to not enact the bill and abolish the Madrassas.