Assam Education Minister Sarma makes big statement over teaching of Quran in state

Assam Education Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Tuesday (October 13) said that the government money could not be used to teach Muslim religious book Quran, adding that if the government is bearing the cost of teaching the Quran in madrassas, then it should also pay for the teaching of Bible and Bhagavad Gita.

"In my opinion, teaching 'Quran' can't happen at the cost of government money, if we have to do so then we should also teach both the Bible and Bhagavad Gita. So, we want to bring uniformity and stop this practice," Sarma said.

The senior BJP leader added that all government-aided madrassas in Assam ill be converted into regular schools as the state goverment has decided to shut down all madrassas in November. Sarma said that in certain cases teachers will be transferred to state government schools.

"All State-run madrassas will be converted into regular schools or in certain cases teachers will be transferred to state-run schools and madrassas will be shut down. A notification will be released in November," said Sarma.

Sarma also said that many Muslim boys open their Facebook accounts using Hindu names and then they fool the Hindu girls in getting married with them. The BJP leader said that these marriages are not authentic but a betrayal. 

Sarma asserted that Assam government has decided to take strict action against this practice and the government will try to find out if marriages are happening as per wish or someone is being fooled in getting married. He added that strict action will be taken against those marriages which are done using fake names.

Notably, Assam has 614 government-aided recognised madrasas - 57 for girls, three for boys, and 554 co-educational. A total of 17 madarasas teach students in Urdu medium. There are around 1,000 Sanskrit tols across Assam, of which around 100 are government-aided.