Uttarakhand Congress terms Minority Education Bill 'unconstitutional'
Dehradun (PTI): Uttarakhand Congress on Wednesday termed the Minority Education Bill, 2025, as "unconstitutional", accusing the BJP-ruled state government of "religious polarisation".
They said the Bill has nothing to do with improving the education of minority communities.
The Bill was passed in August during the Assembly's monsoon session held in Gairsain and got the Governor Lt. Gen. Gurmeet Singh (Retd)'s assent on Monday.
The Bill is set to become law in the state after the notification is issued.
Suryakant Dhasmana, vice president (Organisation) of the Uttarakhand Congress unit, stated that the law is "unconstitutional and a blatant violation of Articles 25 and 26" of the Indian Constitution.
He also claimed that if challenged in court, the government will face defeat on this issue.
He alleged, "The Dhami government has introduced this law solely to further its agenda of religious polarisation and has nothing to do with improving the education of minority communities in the state or improving the quality of education."
Questioning the new law requiring all educational institutions for minority communities to affiliate with the Uttarakhand Board of School Education (UBSE), Dhasmana stated that these institutions operate only after obtaining a No Objection Certificate (NOC) from the state government's Education Department.
They comply with the Societies Registration Act, but they have the freedom to decide which board they affiliate their institutions with.
He said that "many schools in the state run by Sikh institutions and Christian missionaries are affiliated with the CBSE, ICSE or international boards. So, how can the state government force any minority educational institution to become affiliated with the Uttarakhand Board?"
Dhasmana alleged, "The government's intention is not to uplift the education of any minority community, but to pursue religious polarisation by targeting madrasas run solely by the Muslim community."
He reiterated that the government already has rules and regulations for the registration and operation of madrasas operating in the state. However, if any are not following them, the Madrasa Board, which operates under the state government, is responsible for this and madrasas operating as per the rules cannot be blamed for this.
Meanwhile, Mufti Shamoon Qasmi, Chairman of the Uttarakhand Madrasa Education Board, called this Bill "a very good step" by the government and said that this will also provide good and quality education to children from the Muslim community and help them join the mainstream.
Under the new law, educational institutions belonging to other minority communities like Sikh, Jain, Buddhist, Christian, and Parsi will also receive minority educational institution status in the state, along with the Muslim community.
Previously, recognition of minority institutions was limited to the Muslim community.
The new law provides for the establishment of an authority that will mandate recognition for all educational institutions established by minority communities.
The authority will also ensure that education in these institutions conforms to the standards set by the UBSE and that student evaluations are fair and transparent.
With the enactment of this law, the Madrasa Education Board Act 2016, passed during the Congress government's tenure, will be repealed.
After receiving the governor's assent, Dhami stated that this law will undoubtedly contribute to making the state's education system more "transparent, accountable and quality-oriented".
The chief minister had previously stated that the Madrasa education system had been facing serious problems for years, including irregularities in central scholarship distribution, irregularities in the mid-day meal scheme and a lack of transparency in management.
He had said that this Bill would empower the government to effectively monitor the functioning of minority educational institutions and issue necessary instructions, which would further strengthen educational excellence and social harmony in the state.
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Trump orders blockade of 'sanctioned oil tankers' into Venezuela, ramping up pressure on Maduro
Washington (AP): President Donald Trump said Tuesday he is ordering a blockade of all “sanctioned oil tankers” into Venezuela, ramping up pressure on the country's authoritarian leader Nicolas Maduro in a move that seemed designed to put a tighter chokehold on the South American country's economy.
Trump's escalation comes after US forces last week seized an oil tanker off Venezuela's coast, an unusual move that followed a buildup of military forces in the region. In a post on social media Tuesday night announcing the blockade, Trump alleged Venezuela was using oil to fund drug trafficking and other crimes and vowed to continue the military buildup until the country gave the US oil, land and assets, though it was not clear why he felt the US had a claim.
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“Venezuela is completely surrounded by the largest Armada ever assembled in the History of South America,” Trump said in a post on his social media platform. “It will only get bigger, and the shock to them will be like nothing they have ever seen before — Until such time as they return to the United States of America all of the Oil, Land, and other Assets that they previously stole from us.”
Pentagon officials referred all questions about the post to the White House.
Venezuela's government released a statement Tuesday accusing Trump of “violating international law, free trade, and the principle of free navigation” with “a reckless and grave threat” against the South American country.
“On his social media, he assumes that Venezuela's oil, land, and mineral wealth are his property,” the statement said of Trump's post. “Consequently, he demands that Venezuela immediately hand over all its riches. The President of the United States intends to impose, in an utterly irrational manner, a supposed naval blockade on Venezuela with the aim of stealing the wealth that belongs to our nation.”
Maduro's government, according to the statement, plans to denounce the situation before the United Nations.
The US buildup has been accompanied by a series of military strikes on boats in international waters in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific. The campaign, which has drawn bipartisan scrutiny among US lawmakers, has killed at least 95 people in 25 known strikes on vessels.
Trump has for weeks said that the US will move its campaign beyond the water and start strikes on land.
The Trump administration has defended the strikes as a success, saying they have prevented drugs from reaching American shores, and pushed back on concerns that they are stretching the bounds of lawful warfare.
The Trump administration has said the campaign is about stopping drugs headed to the US, but Trump's chief of staff Susie Wiles appeared to confirm in a Vanity Fair interview published Tuesday that the campaign is part of a push to oust Maduro.
Wiles said Trump “wants to keep on blowing boats up until Maduro cries uncle.”
Tuesday night's announcement seemed to have a similar aim.
Venezuela, which has the world's largest proven oil reserves and produces about 1 million barrels a day, has long relied on oil revenue as a lifeblood of its economy.
Since the Trump administration began imposing oil sanctions on Venezuela in 2017, Maduro's government has relied on a shadowy fleet of unflagged tankers to smuggle crude into global supply chains.
The state-owned oil company Petroleos de Venezuela SA, commonly known as PDVSA, has been locked out of global oil markets by US sanctions. It sells most of its exports at a steep discount in the black market in China.
Francisco Monaldi, a Venezuelan oil expert at Rice University in Houston, said about 850,000 barrels of the 1 million daily production is exported. Of that, he said, 80 per cent goes to China, 15 per cent to 17 per cent goes to the US through Chevron Corp, and the remainder goes to Cuba.
In October, Trump appeared to confirm reports that Maduro has offered a stake in Venezuela's oil and other mineral wealth in recent months to try to stave off mounting pressure from the United States.
“He's offered everything,” Trump said at the time. “You know why? Because he doesn't want to f—- around with the United States.”
It wasn't immediately clear how the US planned to enact what Trump called a “TOTAL AND COMPLETE BLOCKADE OF ALL SANCTIONED OIL TANKERS going into, and out of, Venezuela.”
But the US Navy has 11 ships, including an aircraft carrier and several amphibious assault ships, in the region.
Those ships carry a wide complement of aircraft, including helicopters and V-22 Ospreys. Additionally, the Navy has been operating a handful of P-8 Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft in the region.
All told, those assets provide the military a significant ability to monitor marine traffic coming in and out of the country.
Trump in his post said that the “Venezuelan Regime has been designated a FOREIGN TERRORIST ORGANIZATION,” but it wasn't clear what he was referring to.
The foreign terrorist organisation designation has been historically reserved for non-state actors that do not have sovereign immunities conferred by either treaties or United Nations membership.
In November, the Trump administration announced it was designating the Cartel de los Soles as a foreign terrorist organisation. The term Cartel de los Soles originally referred to Venezuelan military officers involved in drug-running, but it is not a cartel per se.
Governments that US administrations seek to sanction for financing, otherwise fomenting or tolerating extremist violence are usually designated “state sponsors of terrorism.”
Venezuela is not on that list.
In rare cases, the US has designated an element of a foreign government as an “FTO.” The Trump administration in its first term did so with the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, an arm of the Iranian government, which had already been designated a state sponsor of terrorism.
