National
Sonia's call to modernise madrasas
By Our Special Correspondent
NEW DELHI, FEB. 11. The Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, has emphasised the need to modernise madrasas and give them a scientific and technological foundation.
In her valedictory address to the International Conference on Minorities Education, held here as a part of the 105th birth anniversary celebrations of Zakir Hussain, Ms. Gandhi traced the long association of her party with Urdu. She referred to the schemes launched by her husband, Rajiv Gandhi, to modernise madrasa education but lamented that it was not being made available as an integral part of the school curricula.
The Congress president said that promoting the teaching and learning of Urdu at the primary and secondary levels was the responsibility of the State. She called on Urdu speakers in every State to demand this. ``After the 93rd amendment of the Constitution, the right of Urdu speakers to obtain education in their mother tongue has to be recognised as a fundamental right,'' she said.
Cautioning against moves to equate Urdu with Islam alone, she said, ``it is important that friends and foes of the language do not confine it to one community or religion. It is the language of brotherhood and amity.''
Ms. Gandhi told the conference that the States where the Congress was in power had taken major steps for the revival and promotion of Urdu. ``The Congress and Urdu have been synonymous, Urdu has contributed to the shaping of the linguistic and cultural way of life of other major languages much in the manner that the Congress has helped in building the national character of India'', she said.
She also referred to attempts made by certain sections to undermine the independent existence of Urdu by calling it a stylistic variant of Hindi.``The intention was to deny it the status of the second language in the northern States. Unfortunately the very forces inimical to Urdu are now sowing the seeds of hatred among other communities,'' she said.
The Congress president said that the most significant and practical necessity today was the need for promoting Urdu as a subject of study in schools.
This, she said, would be possible only when a three-language formula is evolved and accepted under the National Education Policy and Urdu is assigned the same status as its sister Indian languages.
* * *
W.Bengal affiliation for some madrasas
KOLKATA FEB. 11. The West Bengal Chief Minister, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, today said some unaffiliated madrasas in the State would be granted affiliation and added that there had been no shift in his Government's policy of protecting the rights of minorities.
``Some unaffiliated Madrasas will be given affiliation. This will help in their advancement,'' Mr. Bhattacharjee said at the 10th annual conference of the Pashim Banga Madrasas Sikshak Samiti here. - PTI
Send this article to Friends by
E-Mail
National
|
