Guwahati: Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Friday claimed that he has closed 600 madrassas and intends to close all madrassas because he wants schools, colleges, and universities instead.
While addressing a rally in poll-bound Karnataka, he vowed to keep up his campaign against madrasas in the state.
Sarma said, “I have closed 600 madrassas & I intend to close all madrassas because we do not want madrassas. We want schools, colleges and universities.”
He added that people from Bangladesh come to Assam and create a threat to our civilization and culture.
All state-run madrasas were to be turned into “regular schools” that provide “general education,” according to a contentious bill that Sarma had notably sponsored in Assam in 2020. There are 3,000 registered and unregistered madrasas in the state as of January 2023.
Sarma further attacked the Congress for allegedly employing a “pro-Mughal” narrative to distort India’s past.
Earlier, Sarma said that a checklist has been prepared for the madrassas, though the state is yet to “enter into an agreement with stakeholders, but things are moving in the right direction”.
The Assam Police is working with Muslims in the state to “rationalise” madrassa education, CM said.
