Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Aug 30: The decision of the Bihar Mahagathbandhan government led by Nitish Kumar to cut out 12 festival holidays in schools for the current academic year has picked up a controversy with the BJP attacking the government “anti-Hindu” and the decision part of its Muslim appeasement policy.
The Bihar Education Department through a notification on Tuesday announced that the number of festival holidays reduced from 23 to 11 during September-December in government schools citing the Right to Education Act (RTE). Twelve such holidays have been cancelled and the change has been implemented for the remaining days of 2023.
As per the notification issued by the additional Chief Secretary KK Pathak, the Raksha Bandhan holiday has been scrapped, the number of Holidays for Durga Puja has been reduced from six to three and nine holidays for Diwali to Chhath have been reduced to four. The 3-day Durga puja holiday includes a Sunday, while the 2-day Chhath holiday also includes one Sunday. The lone Diwali holiday falls on Sunday on 12 November. While there were nine days of holidays from Diwali to Chhath Puja, now there will be only one day off for Diwali and 2 days for Chhath Puja, including a Sunday.
The notification stated that due to elections, examinations, administration, festivities, events, floods, natural calamities and other reasons, the mandatory 200 days of school education for primary and 220 days for secondary schools are not possible. Furthermore, different festivities are celebrated in different regions of the state, creating confusion. A new list of holidays for the remaining months of the year has been announced to remove the confusion over the holidays.
BJP leader and Union Minister Giriraj Singh wrote on X, “Holidays of Durga Puja, Diwali and Chhath Puja have been cancelled by the education department of Bihar government. Tomorrow it is possible that Sharia will be implemented in Bihar and there will be a ban on celebrating Hindu festivals.”
Teachers association of Bihar ‘Educators of Bihar’ said in a statement, “Even after deducting 52 Sundays and 60 holidays on festivals, the schools run for 253 days. The decision taken by the education department is dictatorial. The department should take cognisance of the matter and reverse the notification; otherwise, all teachers will protest against it and shake the foundation of the state government.”
Bihar BJP State president Samrat Choudhary termed the decision “politics of appeasement.” “The Nitish Kumar government has taken an unfortunate decision by reducing the festival holidays. Both Nitish Kumar and Lalu Prasad are engaged in the politics of appeasement. To achieve the goal of becoming the Prime Minister of India, Nitish Kumar has reached on the pinnacle of doing politics of appeasement,” Choudhary alleged.
Senior BJP leader and Rajya Sabha member Sushil Modi alleged that the State government had shown their “anti-Hindu identity.” “By cancelling and reducing the festive holiday of Raksha Bandhan, Teez, Juitiya, Diwali and Chhath proves their anti-Hindu identity. Why the holidays of Raksha Bandhan and several other festivals have been cancelled? Let the holidays of Muslims like Chehlum and Muhammad Prophet’s birthday continue. I have no objection but what government wants to prove by cutting the holidays of Hindu festivals like Chhath and Diwali? I demand that the anti-Hindu circular should be rolled back immediately,” Modi said.
He further said, “The Education Department is citing the RTE Act to reduce the number of festive holidays. The Section 27 of the RTE Act prohibits deployment of teachers for non-educational purposes but the government used teachers for caste-based survey and during that period the schools were closed and several schemes were affected, including mid-day meals. If the teachers are not be used in non-educational work, then there would be no need to cut festive holidays. So, don’t cite the RTE Act as the justification of reducing holidays, and roll back the circular,” he added.