Author: Express News Service
Publication: The Indian Express
Date: February 20, 2004
URL: http://www.indianexpress.com/full_story.php?content_id=41456
Introduction: Schools, colleges
to shut by noon on Friday; BJP says do it for Hindus, too, on Tuesday
Under pressure to prove his secular
credentials and keep his coalition afloat before elections, Chief Minister
Mulayam Singh Yadav has gone to another extreme. His government has ordered
all Uttar Pradesh board schools and intermediate colleges to close for
the day by noon every Friday.
But this order has already become
a talking point in the run-up to the polls. The BJP has been quick on the
draw, attacking the government for ''giving education a communal colour
by passing an order to help Muslims offer namaz.''
Several Muslim community leaders
have strongly criticised this move calling it tokenism for political purposes.
When contacted, Muslim Personal Law Board member Kamal Farooqi said: ''This
posturing isn't going to help us...we need more schools, not an order that
will be used by communal forces to attack us.''
Said ex-MP Syed Shahabuddin: ''Nobody
asked for it. You can always offer namaz during lunch break. His (Mulayam's)
motive is political.''
The state government order, issued
on Monday, gave no reason but directed all government schools and colleges
affiliated to the Uttar Pradesh board to conduct teaching work only till
12 noon every Friday. The BJP alleged that it is a ''politically motivated''
move to woo Muslim voters ahead of the polls.Uttar Pradesh BJP leader Vinay
Katiyar charged the Mulayam Singh government with ''communalising education''
and demanded similar relaxation on Tuesdays to ''help Hindus offer prayers
in temples.''
A section of Muslim clerics have
backed the government decision.
''If the move is aimed at helping
Muslims fulfil their religious obligations, we welcome it,'' said Sunni
cleric Sajjad Nomani.
But leading Shia scholar Kalbe Jawwad,
however, said it would have been better had the government had only given
a one-hour relaxation to Muslim government employees to help them offer
prayers.
''This decision will not serve much
purpose as students of these classes are not very regular with their Friday
prayers,'' Jawwad pointed out.
Meanwhile, the Muslim Students League
has demanded that the order be made applicable up to the university level.
According to League's R A Ahmed,
this is the practice is prevalent in the Aligarh Muslim University.
