New Delhi, Oct. 3: The Centre is prepared to go slow on the proposal for a board to regulate non-theological education at madarsas till it builds consensus within the Muslim community, human resource development minister Kapil Sibal said today.

The statement came after Sibal met Muslim MPs, including many who were critical of the composition planned for the Central Madarsa Board.

“I assured the MPs that we are in no hurry to bring the Madarsa board. And if the community does not want it, we can drop the idea altogether,” Sibal told the media later today.

Sibal also asked the critical MPs to propose, within a month, an alternative composition to the one suggested for the board at present. The board was first proposed in 2006.

Under current plans the board — aimed at ensuring quality standards in mainstream education at madarsas — includes representatives of select Islamic schools of teaching and thought.

But some MPs today criticised this structure, alleging that it divides the Muslim community along the lines of their religious and educational philosophies.

All 59 Muslim MPs, from both Houses of Parliament, were invited to the meeting by Sibal, but only 18 attended. Of those, four rejected the board plan outright, saying it could become an instrument for the government to interfere with the functioning of Islamic seminaries.

An equal number, four, accepted the current draft of the proposed law to create the board. The remaining 10 MPs agreed with the concept behind setting up the board, but expressed concerns about the current draft of the law.

“I assured the MPs that we will absorb all the changes they want in the draft law,” Sibal said.

The minister also detailed the road map ahead for the planned board. The government, he said, will first build a consensus among Muslim MPs, and then approach clerics. Only once it has also convinced the clerics will the government table the bill in Parliament, Sibal said.