No Religious Consideration

The Assam Legislative Assembly’s decision of Friday to strike down a colonial-era tradition of a two-hour break in the House on Fridays to facilitate offering ‘namaaz’ by legislators belonging to a particular community, must be hailed as a very historic one. While Assembly Speaker Biswajit Daimary took the decision, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said the decision to do away with breaks for ‘namaaz’ in the State Assembly was a step towards boosting productivity and doing away with colonial practices. A practice introduced way back in 1937 by the first government headed by Md. Saadullah with the blessings of the Muslim League had so long enabled Muslim members of the Assembly to take a two-hour break to offer ‘namaaz’ on Fridays. With the passing of time, the entire Friday schedule of the Assam Legislative Assembly began to be curtailed by two hours, which resulted in massive loss of time and money for the majority members of the House as a section of them belonging to a particular religious faith apparently went for their prayers. The proposal to do away with this practice, moved by the Speaker, was taken “in view of the secular nature of the Constitution.” The proposal to do away with this provision in the Rules of Procedures of the assembly was placed before the Rules Committee, headed by the Speaker, which unanimously agreed to drop the practice. Following this decision, the Assam Legislative Assembly will now function without any religious consideration, the Speaker is reported to have said. This historic decision of the Assam Legislative Assembly came one day after the House passed a bill doing away with the ‘kazi’ system and making it compulsory for Muslim people in Assam to register with the government for both marriage and divorce. Chief Minister Sarma, who has literally created history by reasserting in the Assembly that a demographic invasion faced by Assam in the past one hundred years or more has threatened to wipe out the centuries-old culture and civilization of the state, however, said that his government would adhere to Muslim personal law and Islamic rituals while requiring compulsory registration. It is interesting to note that the resolution to discontinue the two-hour break for ‘namaaz’ was moved by AIUDF legislator Aminul Islam, which was then unanimously adopted by the House. A section of Muslim leaders, however, have taken to criticize this decision by terming it as another anti-Muslim step by the BJP-led government in Assam. This criticism, however, does not hold much water because, in a secular state where no religion of faith gets priority treatment, there can be no question whatsoever of allowing one section to have special privilege at the expense of a sacred institution like the State Assembly.