The Bihar Education Department’s move to reduce the festival holidays from 23 to 11 during September-December in government schools citing the Right to Education Act (RTE) has triggered a controversy. Twelve such holidays have been cancelled and the change has been implemented for the remaining days of 2023.
BJP leader and Union Minister Giriraj Singh wrote on X (formerly Twitter), “Holidays of Durga Puja, Diwali and Chhath Puja have been cancelled by the education department of Bihar government. Tomorrow it is possible that Sharia will be implemented in Bihar and there will be a ban on celebrating Hindu festivals.”
An Education Department notification on Tuesday evening said that to enhance the quality of the education in the schools, the number of holidays was being reduced as per the Right to Education Act 2009 between September and December 2023.
The holidays for Raksha Bandhan, Teej, Jiutiya, Vishwakarma Puja, Janmashtami, and Guru Nanak Jayanti have been cancelled as well. For Durga Puja, the earlier six-day holiday has been reduced to three.
The department says in the notification that it is necessary to have at least 200 working days in primary schools and 220 days in middle schools but due to elections, examinations, festivals and natural calamities, studies are affected.
It also says that schools do not follow uniformity in closure for festivals as they are open in some districts and closed in others.
‘Politics of appeasement’
Bihar BJP State president Samrat Choudhary termed the decision “politics of appeasement”.
“The Nitish Kumar government has taken an unfortunate decision by reducing the festival holidays. Both Nitish Kumar and Lalu Prasad are engaged in the politics of appeasement. To achieve the goal of becoming the Prime Minister of India, Nitish Kumar has reached on the pinnacle of doing politics of appeasement,” Mr. Choudhary alleged.
Senior BJP leader and Rajya Sabha member Sushil Modi alleged that the State government had shown their “anti-Hindu identity”.
“By cancelling and reducing the festive holiday of Raksha Bandhan, Teez, Juitiya, Diwali and Chhath proves their anti-Hindu identity. Why the holidays of Raksha Bandhan and several other festivals have been cancelled? Let the holidays of Muslims like Chehlum and Muhammad Prophet’s birthday continue. I have no objection but what government wants to prove by cutting the holidays of Hindu festivals like Chhath and Diwali? I demand that the anti-Hindu circular should be rolled back immediately,” Mr. Modi said.
He further said, “The Education Department is citing the RTE Act to reduce the number of festive holidays. The Section 27 of the RTE Act prohibits deployment of teachers for non-educational purposes but the government used teachers for caste-based survey and during that period the schools were closed and several schemes were affected, including mid-day meals. If the teachers are not be used in non-educational work, then there would be no need to cut festive holidays. So, don’t cite the RTE Act as the justification of reducing holidays, and roll back the circular.”
