The Hindu : U.S. officials' visit to `madrasa' upsets Bengal Government

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, May 11, 2002

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U.S. officials' visit to `madrasa' upsets Bengal Government

By Our Special Correspondent

Kolkata May 10. West Bengal's ruling communists are upset over the visit of U.S. consulate officials to a madrasa (Muslim seminary) here for ``gathering information about the way the institutions are run''.

The Communist Party of India (Marxist), leader of Bengal's ruling Left Front, has reacted sharply to the news that three consulate officials from New Delhi and Kolkata had on May 3 visited the Kolkata Madrasa College, one of the oldest in the State, discussed with its authorities its history, present curriculum and the way it is run. They also discussed areas where they thought it needed improvement such as the quality of teaching and study material.

The three consulate officials who visited the college were James Callaghan, Counsellor, Public Affairs, the U.S. embassy in New Delhi, Rex Mozar, the Kolkata American Centre chief and the Centre's programme manager, Ramendra Sarkar.

`` The way the U.S. officials are trying to gather information regarding the madrasas in Kolkata is shocking. If they really want to see things for themselves, they should have first sought permission from the Central and the State governments,'' Anil Biswas, the secretary of the CPI(M)'s Bengal unit, said.

The U.S. consul-general in Kolkata, Christopher Sandrolini, has tried to meet the Chief Minister, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, to explain the visit but has not succeeded so far. But, the Buddhadeb government has ordered a probe into the visit, saying the State Home Secretary was already looking into it. ``You know and I know what the law says about such visits,'' Mr. Bhattacharjee commented.

The CPI(M) daily, Ganasakti commented in an editorial today that the US officials' visit was `suspect'. It said the U.S. consulate in Kolkata was involved in a similar controversy two years ago when its officials visited Nanoor in Birbhum district, where several people died in a clash between zamindars and landless labourers.

Mr. Sandrolini then met the then Chief Minister, Jyoti Basu and tried to explain the reasons behind the visit but with little success.

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