In response to widespread embarrassment stemming from the release of the school holiday calendar, the Bihar Education Department clarified the matter on November 28 through an official press release. The department stated that the school holiday calendar for the year 2024 has been distinctly prepared for Urdu-medium schools.
The clarification aims to address any confusion or concern surrounding the initial release of the calendar, providing transparency on the differentiated scheduling for Urdu and general schools.
The education department asserted in the press release that many misleading news pertaining to festivals and related holidays has been spread by the newspapers and social media. However, the reality is that two separate notifications, i.e notification number 2693 and 2694 pertaining to the school holidays calendar for the year 2024 have been issued by the department. Possibly due to which the media/social media in a hurry misinterpreted it.
Further, the education department in the press release also categorically explained that no commutation has been made in terms of total holidays given in 2024 as compared to the last year, i.e of 60 days. The schools used to remain open on the birth anniversaries of prominent people and freedom fighters while the anniversaries of a few greats like Ashoka and Veer Kunwar Singh have fallen under the summer vacation, so they are not mentioned separately.
In the end, the press release read that the commutation in the summer vacation has been made in view of the upcoming Lok Sabha election in 2024.
Opposition-slammed appeasement politics
Meanwhile, coming down heavily on the government move, many prominent Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders termed the move a desperate attempt to appease the minorities. Taking to X (twitter), Senior BJP leader Nikhil Anand said that the Bihar government has issued two circulars on religious lines. The circular 2393 will be applied on Hindus and general schools while circular 2394 will be applied on Muslims and Urdu schools.
The Bihar Govt has issued to circulars on religious lines.
The circular 2393 will be applied on Hindus & General schools while circular 2394 will be applied on Muslims & Urdu schools.
Nitish Kumar & Tejashwi Yadav wants to convert Bihar into Pakistan and impose Talibani law. pic.twitter.com/Ya4IVhrCUW
— Dr. Nikhil Anand (@NikhilAnandBJP) November 28, 2023
Nitish Kumar and Tejashwi Yadav want to convert Bihar into Pakistan and impose Talibani law. What a shame that the education department of Bihar wants to pollute the young student’s mind on religious lines. What kind of psyche is being reflected when a student feels that if you are a Muslim, you will have more holidays, and if you are Hindu, then have fewer holidays, asserted Anand in a series of tweets.
Earlier, Minister of State for Home Affairs of India Nityanand Rai in a statement, also slammed the Nitish-led government. The union minister, while slamming the government’s move, said that Nitish Kumar should immediately stop playing with the emotions of the Hindus.
The way holidays on Hindu festivals are being scrapped while it got expanded on Muslim festivals is an attempt to take Bihar towards Islamization. Nitish Kumar Ji and Tejashwi Yadav Ji are the main conspirators of this conspiracy. The people of Bihar will never accept this, added Mr. Rai.
The policy of Muslim appeasement is a well-hatched conspiracy of the Bihar government. The British-like policy of divide and rule of Nitish Kumar will not go around. The people of Bihar are intelligent, they are seeing your conspiracy and the way you are hurting the Hindus it will be retaliated by them, concluded Rai.
It is to be noted that the Nitish-led coalition government of Bihar and the opposition BJP have been on each other’s neck over issues pertaining to appeasement policy and recent surge of communal fissures in the state. Where the state unit of the saffron party led by Samrat Chaudhary has been continuously accusing the Mahagathbandhan government for failing to contain communal flare-ups due to appeasement politics.
