Some Christian and Muslim leaders in India are sceptical about the government’s motives in announcing provision of 10 million annual religious minority community educational scholarships for the next five years.

On June 12, the federal government, led by the pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), announced a grant to fund the assistance Minister for Minority Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi also said that teachers in madrassa, traditional Muslim schools attached to Mosques, will be given training in main-stream subjects such as the Hindi language, English, Maths and Science as well as in the use of computers.

The aim is to help madrassa students receive a mainstream education as well as their religious studies.

Though the measures were welcomed by a number of Muslim organizations, others remained dubious as to the government’s intentions.

“Why should Hindi be made compulsory in madrassas of the country?” queried social activist Syed Shahid.

He referred to the scholar-ships on offer as worrisome “sugar-coated capsules.”