REPRESENTATIONAL IMAGE
Guwahati, Aug 30: In a significant move, a major decision has been taken to abolish the Namaz breaks that were given to minority communities on Fridays during a session at the Assam Legislative Assembly.
“Today, the House adopted a motion to amend this rule so as to provide for sitting of the House for conduct of its proceedings on Fridays like any other day. So, today history has been created doing away with this colonial practice which was aimed at dividing the society on religious basis,” an official statement reads.
The Speaker, Biswajit Daimary, taking note in view of secular nature of the Constitution, proposed that the Assam Legislative Assembly must conduct its proceedings on Fridays like any other day without any adjournment to facilitate Muslim legislators to offer Namaz.
On the final day of the ongoing autumn session, MLA Biswajit Phukan informed that a historic decision has been taken in the assembly to abolish the British-era rule of Namaz breaks given on Fridays during sessions of the Assembly.
He said, “Every Friday, there was a break for two hours between 12 pm to 2 pm for Muslim MLAs to offer Namaz, however, from now on there will be no break.”
He informed that the decision was taken in a meeting conducted by Speaker Biswajit Daimary and it was a unanimous one.
Phukan informed, “Lok Sabha, Rajya Sabha and Assembly houses in other states do not have this provision of giving breaks for Namaz that is why the speaker decided to end this British-era rule.”
The abolition was done by amending the Rule 11 of the Legislative Assembly rules.
This rule was in place since the days of Syed Muhammad Saadulla, who was the first Prime Minister of Assam in British India from 1937 to 1946.
