Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Thursday ruled out any move to abolish madarsas after Shia Central Waqf Board chairman Waseem Rizvi’s recent demand on the issue, and instead advocated modernization of these institutions saying ‘they too had a role in education system’.
Inaugurating a co-ordination meeting of north India Minority Affairs and Social Justice Ministers in Lucknow on Thursday, Yogi said, “Banning madarsas is no solution. But my government will certainly go for major modernisation and upgradation of madarsas so that students get quality education.”
The Chief Minister said that his government would also improve the quality of education in Sanskrit schools in the state so that students could study job-oriented courses.
Besides, Union minister of Minoroy Affairs MukhtarAbbas Naqvi, ministers and officials of nine states— Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Haryana, Delhi, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Chandigarh are participating in the meeting.
Yogi’s statement on madarsas contradicted the demand of Shia Waqf Board chairman Waseem Rizvi, who demanded that madarsas be banned as it theyhad terror-links and were not imparting good education.
Yogi ruled out opposition charges that the government was working in a partial way. “The BJP government is working on the ideology of ‘sabka saath, sabka vikas’ and we are focusing on the development of all communities,” he said.
The CM also appreciated Union minister for Minority Welfare Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi for working towards the uplift of minorities in the country. ‘’After Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi became a minister, implementation of minority welfare schemes have gathered steam,” he stated.
On his part, Naqvi said that the Centre was doing everything required for the uplift of minority communities with focus on their economic, education and health sectors.
“The BJP government would not support appeasement or vote politics done by earlier government to confuse the minorities,” he said.
Officials said that the main agenda of the meeting was to assess various developmental measures initiated by different state governments for education and socio-economic development for minorities.
The decision to hold the meet in Lucknow is also seen as a bid by the saffron party to stress that it wais not opposed to welfare of minority communities but would not share ‘discriminatory’ approach of other parties as seen in the BJP’s attacks on the previous SP reegime over providing funds for maintenance of burial grounds that led to allegations of encroachment and rise in communal tensions.
The Lucknow meet is the second of its kind as Chennai had hosted the first one. The next destination for the next meetings would be Kolkata and Mumbai.