Al Haqeeqa
Lucknow: The Yogi government has reduced discretionary holidays around Muslim festivals while making it compulsory for madrassas to remain closed on festivals of other faiths. In the annual calendar that was released on Tuesday seven new holidays have been added and 10 discretionary holidays that were earlier allowed to madrassas for festivals like Id-ul-Zuha and Muharram have been reduced to four days.
Earlier UP madrasas were closed only during Muslim festivals with the exception of Holi and Ambedkar Jayanti, but now they are asked to remain closed on Mahavir Jayanti, Buddh Purnima, Raksha Bandhan, Mahanavmi, Diwali, Dussehra and Christmas as well.
Clerics have expressed unhappiness at the move. TOI has quoted Eijaz Ahmed, president, Islamic Madarsa Modernisation Teachers’ Association, as saying “Madrasas are religious institutions that do require different kinds of leave around a number of minority events for which the former discretionary leave was used. There is no problem in addition of holidays of other faiths, but it is totally wrong to cut down the ten discretionary special leaves.”
