Owaisi condemns survey of Madrasas in UP

The institutions produce only imams, muezzins and muftis to give Islamic education, says MIM chief

The All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen president Asaduddin Owaisi has condemned survey of madrasas in Uttar Pradesh and said they were needlessly targeted by the State government though the institutions produced only imams, muezzins and muftis to give Islamic education.

Delivering an address on the eve of Milad-un-Nabi at the party headquarters here late on Saturday night, Mr. Owaisi questioned the silence of Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav on the surveys despite the projection of the latter as the true representative of Muslims in the last UP elections. He also reminded that the Muslims were asked to stay clear of him and support Mr. Akhilesh.

Reacting to Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat’s fears at a Dasara celebration that the Muslim population was growing in the country, the AIMIM leader said the National Health Survey Five actually showed that the lion’s share of drop in the Total Fertility Rate to two per cent was of Muslims. The female foeticide by Muslims in the period 2002 to 2019 was 90 lakh which was 86.7 per cent of the total number. The spacing between children was also the highest among Muslims because of the usage of contraceptives.

Referring to an affidavit filed by the BUP led Central government in the Supreme Court in 2020 that it could not make family planning compulsory, Mr. Owaisi warned about the consequences for Muslim population in this context. The idea was to instil the fear of Muslims contributing to population explosion and crack down on madrasas as terrorist centres.

This being the case, the government refused to address the danger of population in the age group of 60 plus going up to 19 crore by 2031 based on 2011 census. It effectively meant that half of the population in the country will be dependent on its children. The question was whether the government will feed this section of people, he asked.

Mr. Owaisi said Muslims were minorities recognised by the Constitution. For them, It was like living in open jails in BJP ruled States. The recent incident of police whipping a Muslim youth with lathis for pelting stone at a Dandia programme in Gujarat exposed the refusal of the government to follow the rule of law against the community.

He warned the BJP that it was making best use of power to suppress Muslims. A time will come when the community will also raise its head. But, it will not misuse power as it will follow rule of law to tackle oppression. Violence for violence was never the answer.