Srinagar: The ideological battle between the ruling National Conference (NC) and the Jamaat-e-Islami Jammu Kashmir (JIJK) spilled into the open on Friday, August 22, after the government ordered the takeover of 215 schools that were allegedly affiliated with the banned outfit. A day after the order was issued by J&K’s school education department, the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) president and former J&K chief minister Mehbooba Mufti on Saturday (August 23) accused incumbent chief minister Omar Abdullah of being “complicit” in the “unfortunate decision”.Peoples Conference chairman Sajad Lone, who has supported the recent efforts to “mainstream” JIJK, the socio-religious outfit that was banned in 2019 under the anti-terror law, Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967, also accused the ruling party of setting “new standards in servility”.The NC, which is facing accusations of cozying up to the Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP)-led Union government since coming to power last year, has a long and violent history of political antagonism against the Jamaat which enjoys widespread support in Kashmir.NC founder Sheikh Abdullah was the first to convince the Union government to ban the outfit when it showed its political tendencies by challenging the 1975 Indira-Abdullah accord.Sheikh Showkat, senior academic and political commentator in Srinagar, told The Wire that the decision to take over the schools “seems to be an attempt by the state government (led by Abdullah) to elevate its credibility in Delhi”.“These schools have been running since 2019 without a gap. What the government has done is a violation of the Article 30 of the Indian Constitution which gives fundamental rights to religious and linguistic minorities to establish and administer educational institutions of their choice,” Showkat said.In a damage-control mode on Friday, the ruling party fielded J&K education minister and senior NC leader Sakina Itoo to clarify its position.The order to shut down these schools was issued by the school education department in 2022 when J&K was under the direct rule of the lieutenant governor (L-G).While Itoo disclosed that the roadmap for the takeover was prepared by the elected NC government, she alleged that the order which hands the management of these schools to the concerned deputy commissioner of the district was not approved by her.The controversial order (No. 578-JK{Edu} of 2025), issued by the secretary of J&K school education, states that 215 schools have been identified by “intelligence agencies” which were “found to be directly or indirectly affiliated with proscribed organisation Jamaat-e-Islami (Jel)/Falah-e-Aam Trust (FAT)”.The FAT reportedly operates around 350 schools in Jammu and Kashmir with more than one lakh students. In its constitution, the FAT, which was set up by the Jamaat in 1972, describes itself as a “non-political” body meant for educating “students from all shades of society without any discrimination”.The order, which is part of a wider crackdown on the outfit following the reading down of Article 370, states that the “validity” of the managing committees of these 215 schools had either expired or they were “reported adversely upon by the intelligence agencies”.Itoo said that these schools have a cumulative roll of around 51,000 students who faced problems at the time of board examinations. It was decided by the government to hand over their charge to the “principals of nearest government-run schools” in their respective areas till new managing bodies were constituted.However, the order issued by the school education department states that the managing bodies “shall be taken over” by the deputy commissioner of the concerned district who “shall propose a fresh Managing Committee in due course for the concerned schools after getting these duly verified”.The order also empowers the deputy commissioners to “take all necessary measures to ensure quality education as per NEP (New Education Policy) 2020 norms in these schools”.“I sent the proposal to the secretary of the school education department and directed him to issue an order on these lines. But he didn’t do it. As the concerned minister, I want to clarify that the order doesn’t mention what we have proposed,” she said.The order was issued by the secretary of the school education department, Ram Niwas Sharma, an officer of the Indian Administrative Service who reports directly to J&K LG Manoj Sinha, as all IAS cadre officers in J&K – which includes nearly all the deputy commissioners – report to the LG.Without taking names, Itoo added, “It is a shame for those who remained silent about the uncertainty faced by 51000 school kids in all these years that they are targeting us now. It is because of them that we are facing these situations”.The Peoples Conference chairman, who recently joined hands with the Justice and Development Front (JDF) – a splinter group of the Jamaat, which contested the 2024 J&K assembly election without success – accused the Abdullah government of being “equal partners” in the administration’s decision.“Be under no illusions. This elected government is a party to all acts undertaken. Be it mailings or termination of employees, they are equal partners. They have been equal partners in the past. And they will be equal partners in the future. This is the A team. This was always the A team,” he said in a post on X.PDP leader Iltija Mufti also criticised the NC, saying that the party has a history of targeting the Jamaat when in power.“Be it 1977 or even today, where they have taken it too far by jeopardising the future of thousands of students leaving them in distress, the hazy illogical U-turn from NC’s education minister only exacerbates the crisis. Why not admit what has been their official policy of punishing and outlawing the Jamaat since decades?” Mufti said on X.While the Jamaat has openly supported the merger of Jammu and Kashmir with Pakistan, the outfit has also been a platform to those people who opposed Sheikh Abdullah and his policies in the aftermath of the 1947 partition.The NC has seen Jamaat as a political rival, especially after the latter decided to take part in elections, initially in panchayat and municipal polls and later in assembly and in the parliament elections once through proxy candidates.The constitution of the Jamaat does not allow its members to take part in the election.Some political analysts believe that if the Jamaat was allowed to rally its cadre, it could emerge as a major political force in elections that can weaken the support base of the NC in the Kashmir valley, a move that favours the Bhartiya Janta Party’s (BJP) plan to have a chief minister from the Hindu majority Jammu to run J&K.During the assembly election in J&K last year, Omar Abdullah, who has faced accusations of working with the BJP behind the curtains, took a jibe at the JDF, which contested the Lok Sabha polls without success, by saying that the elections which were “haraam” (forbidden act) in the past for some had suddenly becoming “halal” (permitted act).After Jammu and Kashmir was stripped of its special status and demoted into a union territory in 2019, the socio-religious outfit has been in the crosshairs of what many opposition leaders and others have argued was a cultural and religious assault on the Muslim-majority region by the BJP.In the years after the Modi government took direct charge of Jammu and Kashmir, the Jamaat, whose top leadership is languishing in jail, has gone through an organisational crisis which led to the formation of the JDF, a registered political party.The JDF has two well-known faces from the outfit in its ranks – former general secretary Ghulam Qadir Lone from north Kashmir, whose son, Kalimullah Lone, unsuccessfully contested from Langate constituency in 2024 assembly election, and Ghulam Qadir Wani, a registered member from south Kashmir’s Pulwama.A Srinagar-based academic and political commentator said that some Jamaat leaders were hoping that the participation of the JDF in the elections could pave the way for lifting of the ban, release of its incarcerated leaders and the return of its assets which have been seized by the Union government under the anti-terror law.“However, despite embracing the idea of India, they have continued to face the music of investigation agencies. Even their literature has been banned. For them, it is another betrayal. Does it mean that the BJP and the NC are hand in glove on the matter? That we may not know very soon,” he said, wishing to remain anonymous.In a post on X, the JDF said that the decision to take over the schools was “not just an administrative overreach but a painful reminder of NC’s history of betrayal”.“Today, the future of thousands of students and the livelihoods of countless teachers stand threatened. To snatch what belongs to the people under the guise of authority may appear as power, but in truth, it is nothing more than a deep wound on justice and an unforgivable insult to public trust,” it said.The JIJK, a branch of the broader Jamaat-e-Islami movement, which was originally founded in British India in 1941 by Maulana Abul Aʼla Maududi, was declared an unlawful association by the Union home ministry under Notification S.O.1069 (E) of February 28, 2019, and Notification S.O. 924 (E) February 27, 2024, issued under sub-section (1) of section (3) of the UAPA.