Guwahati

A day after AIUDF supremo Maulana Badruddin Ajmal’s appeal to the Assam government to spare madrassas from being razed for the fault of one or two teachers, the civil society has voiced concern on the violation of students’ right to education and alleging it was a conspiracy against Islamic education.

Ajmal has threatened to take legal recourse after visiting the demolished madrassa at Kabaitari in Bongaigaon Thursday, the civil society has asked the Himanta Biswa Sarma government to ensure that the education of the students of the razed madrassas, jobs of teachers, and other staff of the demolished Madrassas are not affected.

“The demolition spree has no justification. The government has been going on razing one madrassa after another all on the mere assumption that those institutions have been involved in anti-India activities,” said educationist Ayesha Ashraf Ahmed.

“The use of the words like jihad or jihadi is unjustified because the government is yet to prove that those arrested are involved in religious warfare against the state. Had the government been able to prove it, I as a Muslim woman would have appreciated and even applauded it. The government should rather use words like anti-national or anti-social in place of jihad or jihad,” she said.

Ayesha Ashraf said instead of demolishing an educational institution on a day’s notice to the students, the government could have enquired into the quality of education being imparted to them.

"The government should act like a government. It is a blatant violation of the right to education of young children. They are young innocent children who are given the impression that they were being educated the wrong way. This will push them to the wrong path under the impression that they were educated by anti-nationals,” she said.

She asked the government to ensure that the children of the demolished madrassas are admitted to other educational institutions.”

Advocate Sarfaraz Nawaz said the arbitrariness and excesses committed by the executive in demolishing the 37-year-old madrassa building at Kabaitari are unfortunate and condemnable. Right to shelter is a facet of Article 21 and cannot be violated without due procedure.

"That was abhorrently missing in this case. The recent trend of bulldozer raj and demolition of houses of people involved in offenses is arbitrary and malicious and is unbecoming of any democratic government.

“Even in the case of the madrassa demolitions, it was ostensibly carried out under the provisions of the Disaster Management Act by alleging that the buildings needed to be demolished to mitigate any possible disaster," Nawaz said.

“The structures were not built as per APWD/IS specifications and therefore hazardous. But these had been there and posed no danger to the lives of children. Only after the arrest of a teacher who was allegedly linked to AQIS sleeper cell modules the building was demolished. The intention is quite clear,” Nawaz said.

Nawaz, who resigned as a judge early this year, to help the poor get justice said: "Law does not permit wanton demolition of houses/offices of people who are involved in offenses. This is a very unfortunate set of affairs and the action of the Bongaigaon administration needs to be challenged before the high court or the Supreme Court."

Former DGP (Special Branch) of Assam Police Pallab Bhattacharyya said: “Bulldozing a madrassa, protected under article 30 of the Constitution, on the pretext of violating Disaster Management Act, is not tenable. For punishing a jihadi there is the Criminal Procedure Code, Indian Penal Code, and Evidence Act.

He thought that destroying a madrassa, on the pretext that it was used by a jihadi element, which is yet to be proved in Court, is fraught with legal complications and runs counter to the ethos of a pluralistic society like India.

“Justice must not only be done but must also be seen to be done. This dictum laid down by Lord Hewart, the then Lord Chief Justice of England in the case of Rex v. Sussex Justices has its relevance even today when bulldozer politics is gaining ground in India. Rule of law, which is the cornerstone of the Indian legal system, supports the equality of all citizens before the law, secures a non-arbitrary form of government, and more generally prevents the arbitrary use of power," Bhattacharyya said.

Eminent educationist and writer Dinesh Baishya said jihadi and terrorist activities in madrassas are the reason for demolishing these institutions. "If we go by this logic, the government will have to demolish all houses, schools, and colleges where many Ulfa, NDFB, and other militants stayed and studied," Baishya said.

Advocate Shahnaz Rahman said razing or bulldozing an entire madrassa on the ground of few such institutions were involved in so-called jihadi activities cannot be supported or justified. Such demolition should be carried out as per the law of the land otherwise, it will lead to anarchy.

“Setting up madrassa is not a crime as Article 30 of the Constitution has provided such right to the Muslim community for the sake of education. So, demolishing the entire madrassa goes against the Constitution. Instead of demolition, the government should identify and eliminate the bad elements in the madrassas," Rahman said.

Rahman argued that if a terrorist is found studying or teaching in a college or school will the authorities demolish the entire institution? "What will be the fate of students who were studying in the demolished madrassas," Rahman said.

All Assam Goriya-Moria-Deshi Jatiya Parishad working president Nurul Haque also described the demolition of the madrassa at Kabaitari on overnight notice for the fault of a single teacher as “inhuman and arbitrary”. He said the government should take alternative measures to educate the children of the madrassa in a regular educational institution.

Haque, however, believed that it was because of the absence of an organized madrassa policy in the Muslim society of Assam. “There is no system of registration of the madrassas. Most of the madrassas in Assam are running without any managing body. Few people come together, take advantage of economically backward people who cannot afford to send their children to schools, and set up a madrassa to raise donations. In those madrassas, teachers are recruited from anywhere, including Bangladesh. Some of those teachers and clerics preach communal hatred and are vitiating the harmony of our state. So, I am personally against this system,” Haque said.

President of All Assam Minorities Students’ Union Rejaul Karim said bulldozing madrassas appears to be a conspiracy hatched by the present regime in Dispur against the Muslim community. "Will the government take care of innocent students and teachers who were associated with the demolished madrassas," Karim said.

Former IAS officer Syed Iftikhar Hussain said patriotism is an inseparable part of Islam. "An individual can't be called a true Muslim if he or she doesn't love his country. I hope that barring a few bad elements, others associated with madrassas are Muslims. So, demolishing a madrassa on presumption or generalising only Jihadi activities are happening there, is unfair," Hussain said.

Coming under criticism for the arbitrary demolitions, chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has said: "The government does not have any intention to go on demolishing madrassas in the state. Our only intention is to see that they are not used by any jihadi elements. So, if a madrassa is not being used for jihadi activities or purpose of expanding of jihadi ideology, there is no question of demolishing such madrassas," Sarma said.

He added, "If we have specific inputs about any structure in the guise of a madrassa being used for jihadi or anti-India activities, we will take the strongest possible action in every such case."

Reacting to Ajmal’s legal threat on Thursday, Sarma said: “I cannot prevent anyone from taking legal recourse. The court is open for all.”

The Muslim civil society has assured that the community is with the government in the fight against alleged jihadis provided “the chief minister guarantees that no more madrassa will be demolished on the pretext of one or two bad elements.”