Law Kumar Mishra
Patna, November 28
Ruling party leader on Tuesday asked the Chief Minister, Nitish Kumar to order withdrawal of orders of additional Chief Secretary K K Pathak pertaining to curtailing holidays during Hindu festivals in educational institutions and protested more vacations during Muslim festivals.
Ashok Chaudhury, PWD Minister, who was earlier Education Minister, in a statement urged the Chief Minister to take cognizance of the strong protests in the society against the order. Education department, he alleged is playing with the religious sentiments of the people.
There is no logic in curtailing holidays of Hindu festivals only, he said, He hoped Nitish Kumar will direct the ACs to withdraw his orders.
Sandip Saurabh, CPI(ML), a supporter of the Mahagathbandhan government too demanded restoration of holidays of students and teachers on Hindu festivals. Sandip demanded removal of Pathak from the education department for his controversial order.
Two Union Ministers namely Giriraj Singh and Ashwini Kumar Chaubey alleged state was being pushed to an Islamic state and the recent order of the education department was the first phase towards Gazba-E-Hindi.
State BJP President Samrat Choudhury warned of a statewide agitation from Thursday if the order wasn’t cancelled by Wednesday.
Former Deputy Chief Minister and senior BJP leader, Sushil Kumar Modi in a statement today regretted Hindu students and teachers were being subjected to cruelty at the cost of appeasement to Muslim students and teachers as their holidays during Eid Muharram have been increased and schools would reopen during Shivratri, Ram Navami, Raksha Bandhan and Janmashtami.
Decision has been taken to appease Muslim vote bank as Lok Sabha election are approaching, they added.
According to the academic calendar released to the schools by K P Srivastva, Director of Secondary Education, there would be no holiday on Gandhi Jayanti, Shrawan Poornima,, Teej and Jivitya festivals of women.
