Though sounding politically realistic Mamata Banerjee has toned down her ‘Aadhar’ and sundry rhetoric against the Centre. However, her Government will continue to take action against the so-called “Sangh Parivar-run” schools allegedly “sowing the seeds of religious intolerance.”
Her Government has already issued a show-cause notice to about 125 schools — reportedly run by the RSS —over suspicions that they were provoking religious intolerance.
Earlier State Education Minister Partho Chatterjee called the complaint “genuine” saying “the school education department is inquiring into the charges against those schools.
There are 125 schools out of which 96 have not obtained any NoC from the Government. They are running these schools without the NoC. These schools will be taken to task and we have issued show cause notices to them.”
He was replying to a question raised by a left legislator in the State Assembly who alleged that more than 300 schools were being run in the State by Saraswati Shishu Mandir and Vivekanda Vidya Vikas Parishad. These schools were not following the curriculum prescribed by the State Government, he said.
“After the inquiry if the allegations are found true then these schools will be stopped. Nobody will be allowed to teach religious doctrines in schools,” Chatterjee said. He would however not mince words on schools run by other religious organisations or the kinds of curriculum then followed.
In fact State BJP president Dilip Ghosh said that “instead of monitoring the schools they are talking about monitoring the activities of Christian missionary schools and the Madarsas.”
The development comes almost in tandem with the Chief Minister advocating “peaceful co-existence” of Centre and the State.