Author: Suchandana Gupta
Publication: The Times of India
Date: August 17, 2007
URL: http://www1.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/2286310.cms
[Note from the Hindu Vivek Kendra: The Muslims
have no problems about taking money for going to Haj, or demanding that their
education, etc., be subsidised, by using funds provided by the Indian state.
Part of these funds are obtained by using the offerings by the Hindus in the
temples, and part of it comes from taxing the Hindus.]
Madrassas in Ujjain have boycotted the Madhya
Pradesh government's mid-day meal scheme for students on the ground that the
food is being prepared by Iskcon, the Hindu religious organisation spreading
Krishna consciousness throughout the world.
The madrassas in Ujjain, 200 km from Bhopal,
have demanded that raw materials for food, and funds be given directly to
them so that they can prepare mid-day meals for students. Muslim clerics argued
that food prepared by Iskcon is first offered to Lord Jagannath as 'bhog'
(offering) before being distributed among the students.
"We can't accept this as it hurts our
religious sentiments," Ujjain Qazi Khaleeq-ur-Rahman told TOI .
"Minister of state for education Paras
Jain came here and lectured us that we needed to change our mentality. We
want to specify that the matter is far above mentality. It is our faith. How
can our students eat a meal which has been served to a Hindu god?"
Iskcon, however, denied that the food prepared
for madrassa students is offered to Lord Jagannath. Iskcon's spokesman in
Ujjain Raghav Das said, "According to our understanding with the Ujjain
Municipal Corporation, we supply prepared food to 22,000 students in town.
We make 66,000 'chapatis', 140 kg of vegetables (curry) and 45 kg of lentils
(dal) per day. We then take just one 'thali' from the kitchen to the temple
of Lord Jagannath. The rest of the food is not taken to the temple. It is
transported from our kitchens to the schools."
Iskcon has been preparing midday meals for
schools in urban areas since July. "We constructed a kitchen large enough
to prepare the mid-day meals for more than 20,000 students. Keeping hygienic
conditions in mind, we even got automatic roti makers which prepare 10,000
rotis per hour. We are not in this for profit."