The BJP-Sena government has no intention to interfere in the religion or culture of minorities and is focussed on working towards building mutual trust, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said on Monday.
He was speaking at ‘Taleem ki Taquat,’ a conference organised by Chancellor of Maulana Azad National Urdu University Zafar Sareshwala, on the importance of formal education within the Muslim community. The programme comes days after the Maharashtra government kept madrassas out of a school education survey last month on the ground that they do not teach the four subjects prescribed in the national curriculum and only impart religious education.
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“The most important task is to create trust. The government is not encroaching on religion, culture or rituals of minorities. Rather, it is working on bringing everyone together,” Mr. Fadnavis told Muslim intellectuals, businesspersons and senior government officials at the Four Seasons Hotel in Mahalaxmi in central Mumbai.
One of the reasons behind the lack of development of minority community was that people played politics with schemes meant for improving the conditions of Muslims, Mr. Fadnavis said. The governments in the past didn’t do what they ought to have done.
Intellectuals in the Muslim community must spread the message of trust in the government.
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He assured them that his government would offer all the financial help possible to any educational scheme for minorities.
He spoke about the measures taken by his government to modernise Madrassas. “However, we need to build consensus. Some leaders should to be told to keep politics away from education,” he said in a veiled reference to the Opposition parties.