bhopal

Updated: Sep 22, 2017 23:22 IST

Madrasas in Madhya Pradesh will soon have to hoist the Tricolour every day, school education minister Vijay Shah announced on Friday. He was speaking at the Madrasa Shiksha Sammelan in the presence of chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan.

Earlier, the Madrasa Board in Madhya Pradesh had ordered all the institutions in its jurisdiction to celebrate Independence Day and send photographs of the occasion across to it. There are 2,575 madrasas in the state, with an enrolment of 2.88 lakh students.

Reacting sharply, the state Congress said the BJP government should order madrasas to hoist the national flag every day only after the RSS headquarters at Nagpur and state BJP office in Madhya Pradesh start doing so first.

MP Muslim Vikas Parishad president Mohd Mahir also voiced his protest, asking why such a practice should be enforced on madrasas when it is not present even at government schools. “I fail to understand why the state government keeps asking the Muslim community to prove its patriotism,” he said. “Muslims are citizens of the country. They take part in the election process. They cast votes. They contest elections. They pay taxes. They do everything a citizen of the country should do. But orders like these are issued to create divisions in society.”

Speaking at the event, Chouhan said modern education should be imparted along with religious training at madrasas to ensure that its students turn into “good human beings”. “Children need to be skilled in today’s times,” he added.

Madrasa Board chairman Sayyed Imadduddin said the institutions would be trained in the do’s and don’ts of hoisting the Tricolour before the order is implemented. No date has been fixed in this regard till now, he added.