On Saturday, 10th June 2023, Assam’s chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma attended Doordharshan’s program DD Dialogue in Guwahati. While answering a question regarding madarsas in this program, Himanta Biswa Sarma said that those who run madarsas in Assam will close 300 madarsas themselves. According to the Assam CM, these madarsa operators also believe that the ‘training’ given in the madarsa is not enough for modern India.
When asked how closing madarsas is related to development, CM Sarma said, “I strongly feel that the Muslim kids do not deserve the madarsa education. Is becoming a mulla all they want? If mothers and fathers of these Muslim kids limit their dream to the extent that they think that their child is destined to become a mulla, then I think this is a crime against those children. I don’t have any problem if the child decides to become a mulla after he reaches the age of 16. But if today, a child is born, and he becomes 6 years old, at that time, if I put them into the wrong school, by the time that kid realizes other things, he cannot come back.”
CM Himanta Biswa Sarma further said, “So if you want your child to become a mulla, let him be a mulla after 16 years. Let him take normal education. I remain a strong advocate for the abolition of the madarsa system of education. And I believe that Indian democracy should provide equal opportunity to Muslim children also.”
He added, “We should act very tough. We should act very strongly. Once a boy or a girl becomes mature, at the age of 16 or 18, he or she can take a career decision. At that time you become a mulla. One cannot become a doctor by learning in a madarsa. One has to first learn biology to become a doctor, that is what I think. Likewise, you first need to learn mathematics to become an engineer. I haven’t seen any mathematics course or a science laboratory in class twelve higher secondary course of any madarsa. That facility is added to madarsas of other states. If madarsas in Assam add this facility then the problem will be over.”
He said, “We have closed the government madarsas. For qaumi madarsas, there is a clause in the constitution that you cannot do certain things. On that, we are working with the people who run madarsas. And they are cooperating with us. they say that we are exiting slowly. This year, they want to close down 300 more madarsas. We are also bringing an act that specifies the facilities that must be provided in one such institute. So I think more madarsas will be closed.”