While Modi government 2.0 gets accolades for connecting Madrasas with mainstream education for the betterment of children studying in the Islamic seminaries, Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Azam Khan has stirred a fresh controversy while responding to this decision. Referring to Mahatma Gandhi’s assassin and the BJP lawmaker Pragya Singh Thakur in the same breath, Azam Khan said madrasas “do not produce people like Nathuram Godse or Pragya Singh Thakur”.
When asked to respond to the Centre’s decision, Azam Khan said, “Madrasas don’t breed those of Nathuram Godse’s nature or with a personality like Pragya Thakur’s. First announce that those propagating thoughts of Nathuram Godse will be declared enemies of democracy, those convicted for terror activities won’t be rewarded,” said Azam Khan, according to news agency ANI.
Drawing a comparison between Godse, who assassinated Mahatma Gandhi and Sadhvi Pragya who was used as a pawn in Congress’ petty games while the party tried to concoct the ‘saffron terror’ bogey, speaks volumes about SP leader’s despicable mindset.
Azam Khan, while spewing venom, forgets that Sadhvi Pragya is not a ‘convict’, as he refers her, but still an accused in the 2008 Malegaon bomb blast case where the NIA has already given her a clean-chit.
Moreover, Azam Khan said if the central government wanted to help madrasas, then they should bring improvements in them. “Religious teaching is given at madrasas. At the very same madrasas, English, Hindi and Maths are taught. This has always been done. If you want to help, improve their standard. Build buildings for madrasas, provide them with furniture and midday meals,” said the parliamentarian from Uttar Pradesh’s Rampur constituency.
Speaking in the lines of the plan PM Modi outlined for the modernisation of Madrasas during his campaign in the previous 2014 polls, Union Minister of Minority Affairs, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, Tuesday, announced that Madrasas which are there in large number across the country were to be connected with the formal education and mainstream education so that those children in Madrasas can also contribute to the development of the society.
This decision was hailed by the Muslim Clerics who while thanking the PM admitted that in past the Muslims were deprived of good educational facilities. Speaking to ANI, Muslim cleric Umer Ilyasi had said that now the Muslims will also be able to equally contribute to the development of the country.
Meanwhile, Azam Khan has previously also drawn flak for his disgraceful sexist ‘Khaki underwear’ remark against his contender and BJP Lok Sabha candidate from Rampur constituency Jaya Prada. The veteran actor-turned-politician Jaya Prada had in the past accused Azam Khan of circulating her morphed, lewd images and also of attempting an acid attack on her.
