Border madarsas under scanner, admits Centre

The Government today admitted it was keeping an eye on madarsas in the bordering areas as some of them could be used for anti-national activities and to facilitate the entry of militants from across the border.

The hour-long discussion in the Lok Sabha on ‘foreign funding of madarsas’, however, didn’t generate any fireworks with the Opposition parties, mainly the Congress and Indian Union Muslim League (IUML), agreed with the Government on the need to curb anti-national activities if they were detected in the madarsas.

Congress’ chief whip Priya Ranjan Das Munshi said the Government should tell them all about the dubious madarsas. ‘‘My party,’’ he said, ‘‘has been giving donations to some of them. We want to be sure the money is not reaching the wrong hands,’’ he said. IUML’s E. Ahmed too agreed.

Minister of State for Home Vidyasagar Rao said that though a general survey of all madarsas was not permissible under the Foreign Control Regulation Act, the IB had zeroed in on some of them.