Kolkata: The Trinamool Congress and the Congress hit out at the Centre on Wednesday for telling Parliament that there were inputs of the Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) using some madrasas in Burdwan and Murshidabad districts for radicalisation and recruitment activities.
Minister of Mass Education Extension Siddiqullah Chowdhury said Speaker Biman Banerjee had asked the lawmakers to bring a joint motion on the matter, adding that all political parties should come together for it.
In a written reply to a question on Tuesday, Union Minister of State for Home G Kishan Reddy had told the Lok Sabha that there were inputs of the JMB using madrasas in Burdwan and Murshidabad districts for radicalisation and recruitment activities. The Trinamool Congress and the Congress legislators called his comments "politically motivated".
"This kind of comment made in Parliament is hurting the culture of the country. It is becoming a big threat to it," Education Minister and TMC general secretary Partha Chatterjee said. "Our police and the administration have taken a note of it. This kind of move is dangerous and must be stopped immediately."
Chatterjee referred to former chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee's comment in the Assembly that madrasas had become a "harvesting place for terrorists". "After that, he (Bhattacharjee) was given an appropriate reply by the people of the state," he said, alluding to the Left Front losing power after a 34-year-long rule.
Leader of Opposition and Congress leader Abdul Mannan condemned Reddy's statement and said it had hurt the sentiments of the people of the state. "I've studied in a madrasa. And like me, there are several members of this Assembly who have studied in state madrasas. There are several Hindu teachers in the madrasas," Mannan said.
"Someone (Reddy) holding such an important post in the central government cannot talk like this. This is against the Constitution," the Congress leader said.
Chowdhury, meanwhile, said madrasa education was existing here for 1,400 years. "I don't think there is anything of that sort (radicalisation). But if there is some specific person involved in the crime, then that's different," he added.
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