Author: Chandan Nandy
Publication: The Telegraph
Date: December 17, 2000
The task force on border management
has asked the Centre to mount greater surveillance not only on mosques
and madarasas on the country's border, but also on the activities of teachers,
visitors and inmates of the Islamic institutions.
The move could spark a controversy
as the task force, headed by former home secretary Madhav Godbole, has
focused only on Muslim establishments, leaving out temples, gurdwaras and
churches.
It is not known what view the Group
of Ministers, which is over seeing security matters and is headed by home
minister L.K. Advani, has taken of the task force's recommendation.
Government officials said the mosques
and madarsas that have mushroomed within Indian territory along the Indo-Pakistan,
Indo-Nepal and Indo-Bangladesh borders are being used by the ISI.
In their briefings to the task force,
security agencies, paramilitary and police forces had stressed that the
mosques and madarsas that had come up along the border over the last few
years were a threat to the country's security.
The border-management task force
felt that there was a need to keep an eye on the "antecedents and activities
of local teachers, frequent visitors, inmates and tabliq Jamaats coming
for preaching."
The force suggested issuing of entry
permits as this would regulate and prevent the visits of outsiders and
Jamaats.
In the context of the mosques and
madarsas in the border areas, the task force has recommended that the Centre
should initiate a special legislation for "regulating construction of religious
buildings in sensitive security areas up to 20 km from the international
border and selected maritime border".
The problem, according to home ministry
officials, is acute along the western, eastern and northern boundaries.
Thousands of mosques and madarsas
have been constructed with the help of unaccounted-for foreign donation
in several border districts of Rajasthan, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar,
West Bengal and Assam.
Studies conducted by both the home
ministry and the state governments have suggested that there have been
demographic shifts in a number of districts of the border states.
Part of this has been caused by illegal immigration from Bangladesh.
The task force has suggested tightening
the Foreign Currency (Regulation) Act (FCRA) so that money pouring in from
Gulf countries and other Islamic nations is not misused for the clandestine
construction of mosques and madarsas.
The recommendation . says:
"The present FCRA regime needs to be tightened, inter alia, in terms of
cent-per-cent auditing of funds received by organisations working within
a 10-km security zone in border areas."
Besides, it should be mandatory
for organisations receiving funds from abroad to report the receipt of
money to district magistrates.
As a general recommendation the
border-management task force has advised the government to maintain constant
dialogue with the minority community on madarsa education.
The task force has also suggested
that state-level advisory boards for madarsa education should be set up
and "since madarsa education is part of a Muslim child's tradition, it
should not be deprecated and efforts should be to expose the inmates of
the madarsas to modern education".
