Author: Saifuddin Insaf
Publication: The Bohra Chronicle
Date: May 2002
The Bombay Times (Times of India
- April 19, 2002) has published a news item regarding one Bohra woman Asma
Mukadam, principal of Taiyebiyah Girls High School run by Sayedna Saheb
in Bombay. It is her story of sacking one Dawoodi Bohra math and science
teacher of the school, Tasneema Haji, who according to Asma Mukadam disliked
non-Muslim teachers. So far so good.
But then the principal Saheba claims
that, "Our school is 117 years old and has always stressed upon secular
values..." Again the paper quoted Sajjad Rampurawala, secretary of the
school, as saying, "We are glad that the court appreciated our stand. ...Our
age-old values of religious tolerance and brotherhood must prevail." Now
both these persons are telling a blatant lie because Sayedna Saheb and
his followers have never cared for secular values and religious tolerance.
The same Taiyebiyah Girls High School
was in news for months in 1992 when it had sacked the then principal, Nafeesa
Divanji who staged a play on national integration in which a Hindu family
was depicted. She was asked to immediately resign by the Education Department
of Sayedna Saheb. All major dailies had published the news condemning the
policy of religious intolerance practiced by Sayedna Saheb's establishment.
In another very recent incident
Sayedna Mohammed Burhanuddin Saheb himself has shown his utter disregard
for secular values of this country. He as a Chancellor of Alighar Muslim
University refused sign on the University's decision to hounor Justice
V.M. Tarkunde with a degree of Doctor for his untiring work for secularism.
Many Dawoodi Bora students were
removed from this very school without assigning any reason when in the
70s their parents joined the reformist movement. That time the principal
of this school was one Parsi woman, Miss Kapadia. She being a Parsi was
ashamed of this act of the Kothar but could do nothing as she was in services
of Sayedna Saheb's establishment.
Sayedna Saheb in 1985 had announced
an award of Rs. 1 lakh for anyone who had done excellent work on communal
harmony to match the reformists, but till today he has not given anyone
this award. So all attempts of Sayedna Saheb's establishment to project
themselves as champion of secularism are no more than publicity gimmicks.
