KOLKATA: West Bengal minister Dilip Ghosh on Friday asserted that singing of 'Vande Mataram' is compulsory in all schools and madrasas across the state, wherever government funds are used.
The West Bengal government has made the singing of 'Vande Mataram' at assembly prayers compulsory in all madrasas with immediate effect, according to an official order. The order by the Directorate of Madrasah Education came nearly a week after the state's BJP government made singing the national song mandatory in all schools.
"Vande Mataram will be sung in all schools and madrasas, everywhere. Wherever government funds are used, and government laws apply, the national song must be sung. This is how it is followed across the country," the senior BJP leader told reporters.
All Bengal Minority Youth Federation chairman Humayun Kabir on Thursday had said madrasas would resist any attempt to impose the order.
"Vande Mataram will not be sung in madrasas. The government has no authority to dictate such matters in madrasas," Kabir said.
He claimed that if the directive was enforced, "All Muslims will unite to protest such diktat".
Kabir, a former Trinamool Congress MLA from Bharatpur in Murshidabad district who later floated his own minority outfit, also referred to recent anti-encroachment demolition drives in parts of the state and elsewhere in the country.
"I will not protest against the removal of illegal encroachments. But I will oppose the mistreatment of Muslims," he said.