A group of organisations affiliated to the Sangh Parivar on Wednesday set a 15-day ultimatum to missionary-run education institutes in Assam to spell out their stand on why their teachers and staff should “wear religious dress, install statues of Jesus and Mary or the Cross and build Churches in their educational institutes”.

The organisations also wrote to the Assam education minister Ranoj Pegu on Wednesday to “prescribe” a uniform for school teachers, especially missionary-run schools, besides requesting the President, Prime Minister and Union ministers dealing with education and children issues to look into the “exclusive practices” as these “go against” the secular values enshrined in the Indian Constitution.

The trigger for the development was the alleged treatment meted out to a 10-year-old Class IV student of a missionary school (Calvary High School) in Sonitpur district, who had chanted Jai Shri Ram inside the classroom on February 5.

The Right-wing organisations also said that if the missionaries did not respond within 15 days, they would then visit their institutes and “they will not be responsible if it may lead to anything untoward”.

Official probe

An official said that a team from the Assam State Commission for Protection of Child Rights on Wednesday and a team from the district unit of the commission on Tuesday started probing the alleged school incident.

“The school authorities claimed a teacher had reprimanded the student for his unruly conduct inside the class. They claimed the student had chanted Jai Shri Ram inside the class but the incident had nothing to do with the chant. We will now get the version of the other parties. Everything will come out in the final report,” the official said.

The development has rattled the Christian community in the state, which has a BJP-led coalition government since 2016, with a community member telling The Telegraph that it is very unfortunate that somebody has questioned what their priest and sisters will wear and wondered why nobody talks about the missionaries contribution to the Assamese society, be it education, health and welfare activities.

The development also comes just months ahead of the general elections in the country. Assam has 14 seats.

In December 2022, the state police had sought details of conversion and churches established in the state, triggering unease within the Christian community which constitutes 2.7 per cent of the 3.2 crore population as per the 2011 census.

The trigger

Satya Ranjan Borah, president of Kutumba Surakshya Parishad told The Telegraph that they were not against any religion but they were against those who claimed their religion “is the best or who indulge in conversion”.

“Our report says that the 10-year-old was dragged out of the class for chanting Jai Shri Ram. If it is about secularism, then why do we see Fathers (cassock) and Sisters/Nuns (habits) in special dress in missionary schools? Why do we see statues of Jesus and Mary or the Cross? Why do we see churches in educational institutes run by missionaries?” Borah said.

He added: “That is why we have set a 15-day ultimatum for the missionary-run educational institutes to spell out their stand or we will start visiting their institutes after 15 days and we will not be responsible for anything that follows because we feel it is against the secular ideals of our Constitution.”

An electronics engineer by qualification, Borah had been associated with various government projects in the past. He joined the BJP in 2011 and was also the social media campaign convenor for the party in the 2016 Assembly polls. He left the party in 2022 and has since been concentrating on Kutumba Surakshya Parishad which he founded in 2013.