Describing the Right to Education Act as an “attack” on the sovereignty of madarsas and other minority institutions, Islamic seminary Darul Uloom Deoband today said it will oppose it. “The seminary will strongly protest the move to snatch rights of madarsas through RTE and it is with the All India Muslim Personal Law Board, which is already opposing it,” newly-appointed Vice-Chancellor Maulana Abul Qasim Nomani said.
He said the Act posed a threat to the independence of madarsas and their education system. “If minority institutions are not excluded from the Act then Deoband will lodge its protest whether on its own or under the banner of the AIMPLB,” Maulana Nomani said. He said that during an event organised by Jamiat Ulama-e-Hind in Delhi a year back, when apprehension was raised in this regard, Union human resource minister Mr Kapil Sibal had assured them that such educational institutions would be kept out of the ambit of the Act.
“But this has not been done,” he said. UP has around 6,000 madarsas and 6,500 minority schools.
The All Indian Muslim Peesonal Law Board (AIMPLB) held a meeting to protest against RTE on last Sunday in which it was decided that if the Centre did not exclude madarsas and other minority institutions from the ambit of the Act, a nationwide agitation would be launched after Ramzan.

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