Author: Editorial
Publication: The Sunday Statesman
Date: February 10, 2002
In what appears to be a coordinated
move, Imams in mosques right across the city, declared on Friday 8th February
that they preferred Jyoti Basu to Buddhadev Bhattacharya and threatened
that their total support to the Left Front may be in danger. The Imam of
Nakhoda mosque, Maulana Mohammed Sabir added that while during Jyoti Basu's
tenure the two communities lived in amity, the situation changed after
Mr Bhattacharya took over. The learned Maulana is quite simply wrong. There
is no evidence whatever that there has been any communal strife or is someone
planning demonstrations and other ugly manifestations of discontent? The
Imam of the Tippu Sultan masjid, Syed Mohammed Mojedadi admitted that Muslims
have always stood by the Left Front and again eulogised Jyoti Basu.
Several issues arise. Imams are
religious leaders; they have no business making political statements like
expressing preferences for political leaders. This only gives a handle
to communal elements among the Hindus to say - Muslims are not part of
the mainstream and they cannot be trusted. The Imams are doing no service
to their community. Remember the statement' of the Imam of Jama Masjid
who eulogised Osama bin Laden following 11th September and urged all good
Muslims to go to Afghanistan to fight in the jihad. When Shabana Azmi delivered
the bon mot and asked government to fly the Imam to Afghanistan and drop
him over Kandahar, he was reduced to say he would not reply to a mere woman!
In other words he had no answer.
The hysteria whipped up by the Imams
over Buddhadev's factual and correct statement is cold blooded and deliberate.
We may have a reason. In addition to the Caveat published today, certain
figures may be pertinent on the subject of madrasas, which caused the furore.
The first madrasa in the state was founded in 1780 and up to the end of
Congress rule there were a total of 238 with an annual state budget of
Rs 5,60,000, or an average of Rs 2,705 per madrasa. Then came the demolition
of the Babari Masjid on 6th December 1992, which we have roundly condemned
ever since. The Left Front, understandably from their point of view, promptly
exploited the situation. At the end of the financial year of March 2001,
there were 507 registered madrasas and the annual budget allocation was
Rs 115 crores or an average of Rs 22.68 lakhs each!
The Imam of Nakhoda mosque is wrong
to claim that madrasas are our private institutions. If they are they should
be privately funded. Instead they are separately provided for in the state's
education budget. The controversy over Buddhadev's comment is not about'
registered madrasas. The panic is over the discovery of a very large number
of unregistered madrasas, larger than in Bangladesh according to Anil Biswas,
funded by petrodollars routed through that country. The Government are
right to enquire into the sources of these funds. National interests are
involved and no Imam can be heard to say that they need not be protected.
They should remember that President Musharraf in the Islamic Republic of
Pakistan is overhauling the functioning of madrasas, which he says are
turning out unemployable mullahs. He wants them to introduce science and
technology courses so that students become valuable citizens. It is not
our business to comment on the internal affairs of another country but
it is obvious that he is on the right track. He is fulfilling a real need.
How much greater is the need in India which has a larger number of Muslims
than Pakistan?
The bluff should be called.
