By TwoCircles.net staff reporter,
Srinagar: An effort by some Muslim students of Delhi Public School (Srinagar) to offer prayer at the campus one Friday afternoon has snowballed into a political controversy.
Media reports say a group of Muslim students tried to offer prayer during school hours on a Friday afternoon, provoking an immediate reaction from the school authorities who stopped the students from doing so. Justifying their decision, the authorities pointed out that no school in any part of the country permitted such religious activities within their premises.
Mr Vijay Dhar, chairman of DPS Srinagar, was quoted saying, “I’m running a school, not a madrasa. Tomorrow, students belonging to the Hindu community in my school will insist they be allowed to perform special puja every Tuesday.” He further said his school had a common prayer which the students recite in the morning assembly. It starts with the line, ‘Lab pe aati hai dua ban ke tamanna meri’, based on a poem by the poet Iqbal.
Eyeing political benefits, state politicians have jumped into the fray, with Syed Ali Shah Geelani demanding that the DPS students should be allowed to offer prayer during school hours as this was an assertion of their religious identity. National Conference leader and former J&K chief minister Farooq Abdullah, however, found his demand “preposterous.” He said he was surprised that Geelani never made such a demand for any other school in the Valley. Abdullah is of the opinion that the decision of whether to allow students to pray or not is best left to school authorities.
Ruling People’s Democratic Party chief Mehbooba Mufti has a solution to the dispute. She says students who want to pray should be allowed to visit the nearest mosque, temple or grudwara during their recess time in order to offer prayers. On the insistence of parents, school can make a provision in this regard. But the onus of responsibility for this will lie on the parents and not on the school for allowing their children to leave the school campus, she said.