The Assam Government is firm on its stand to end the funding of religious educational institutes through taxpayers’ money. A bill to this respect has been tabled in the three-day Winter Session of the Assam Legislative Assembly.
The bill proposes to do away with two existing acts — The Assam Madrassa Education (Provincialisation) Act, 1995 and The Assam Madrassa Education (Provincialisation) of Services of Employees and Re-Organisation of Madrassa Educational Institutions) Act, 2018.
Today I shall introduce a Bill to repeal Provincialisation of Madrassa. Once the Bill is passed, the practice of running Madrassa by the Government in Assam will come to an end, a practice which was started by Muslim League govt in pre-Independence Assam.
— Himanta Biswa Sarma (@himantabiswa) December 28, 2020
Assam Education minister Dr. Himanta Biswa Sarma said that it was not a right to fund the teachings of one or a few selected religions through public money. The education minister explained the government’s stand, “We are not against teachings of any religion. A government cannot be one-sided. If education is imparted on Islamic religious teachings by the government using taxpayers money, then the government is also bound to pay for the teachings of other religions like Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhist, Sikh, Tribal religions, Christianity etc.”