Uttar Pradesh Cancels Eid Milad-un-Nabi, Jummat-ul-Wida Holidays
The Indian state of Uttar Pradesh's (UP) Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) led government has announced an end to holidays for Eid Milad-un-Nabi, Jummat-ul-Wida, and 15 other public holidays, BBC Urdu reported.
The announcement was made on Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's Twitter account on Tuesday.
Besides the aforementioned holidays, days off to celebrate the birth of Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti, Chandar Shekhar, and Chaudhry Charan Singh have also been ended.
"On the birthdays of great personalities, educational institutes should organize assemblies of at least an hour long informing students of their personality, achievements and motivational teachings," the Chief Minister's office declared in a series of tweets.
It is important to note that CM Yogi Adityanath had previously hinted at abolishing holidays for celebrating the birthdays of personalities.
"If the purpose of these holidays is to remember the great personalities and to motivate people, then why don't we open schools for two hours on such occasions and inform the kids who these great people are?", he questioned an audience while speaking at an event to celebrate the birthday of the Indian constitution's architect.
A great majority of the holidays canceled by Yogi Adityanath's government were sanctioned by the former Akhilesh Yadav government.
Currently, there are 42 public holidays in UP, out of which 17 celebrate the birthdays of notable personalities.When Yogi Adityanath was sworn in as the new chief minister of Uttar Pradesh in March communist leaders had described his swearing as a step towards turning India into a Hindu Rashtra (state).
Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury said that with the yogi’s inauguration the BJP and its ideological parent, the RSS, have sent out a clear message that “they want to transform India into a Hindu Rashtra”.
He said it was also a clear message by the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh that the backward classes, minorities and other oppressed sections of society “will have to accept upper caste leadership”.
Mr Yechury accused Mr Adityanath of always speaking against the Muslims and the Dalits.
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