Protests erupted on the third day of the ongoing budget session in the West Bengal Assembly on Friday after TMC legislators objected to remarks by BJP MLA Agnimitra Paul, who alleged that state funding for madrasas was fostering criminality among minority youth, triggering a major uproar in the House.
Participating in the debate on the interim state budget tabled a day earlier, Paul argued that funds allocated to madrasas were failing to uplift minority communities.
She claimed that instead of producing doctors, engineers, or teachers, such institutions were encouraging the growth of youth who “end up becoming criminals.”
She further accused the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) of exploiting minorities as a “vote bank” while neglecting their real development, and said the recommendations of the Sachar Committee had been ignored.
Paul also challenged senior TMC leaders, including Cabinet Minister and Kolkata Mayor Firhad Hakim and Mass Education Extension Minister Siddiqullah Chowdhury, to release a white paper detailing how many professionals, such as doctors, engineers, IAS and IPS officers, or scientists, had emerged from madrasas over the past 15 years, and how many youths, according to her, had instead been pushed toward crime.
Her remarks drew immediate condemnation from TMC members.
This story was originally published in maktoobmedia.com. Read the full story here.