The Hindu : Boost for campaign against 'saffronisation' of education

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Oct 16, 2002

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National

Boost for campaign against 'saffronisation' of education

By Anita Joshua

NEW DELHI OCT. 15. The campaign against the ``saffronisation of education'' is likely to get a shot in the arm with the `education wing' of the Congress recommending that all the States ruled by the party reject the new syllabus in toto.

A recommendation, urging the Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, to instruct all party Chief Ministers to reject the new syllabus, has been forwarded to her by the `education wing' after a meeting it organised with party leaders, concerned citizens and historians this past Sunday.

At the meeting, the party also decided to take the campaign to the people as it was felt that the fight against ``saffronisation of education'' should not be confined to the realm of politics. Should the Congress president accept this recommendation, the National Curriculum Framework for School Education (NCFSE) — brought out by the National Council of Educational Research and Training — will not be introduced in 14 Congress-ruled States plus Jammu & Kashmir if the party forms a government there.

With Wednesday's Opposition meet on saffronisation expected to also recommend rejection of the NCFSE by all States where they are in power, their number could swell as two are ruled by the Left and two have the Congress in the ruling coalition.

Of these four States, Education Ministers of all but Meghalaya had registered their objection to the NCFSE by walking out of the 38th Annual General Meeting of NCERT in May this year.

Besides the Congress and the other three Left parties — CPI (M), RSP and Forward Bloc — the Opposition parties invited to this meeting are the Samajwadi Party, Janata Dal (Secular), Lok Janshakti Party, and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). As of today, all but the NCP had confirmed their participation.

Announced on October 9 in the wake of the Supreme Court verdict, which rejected a public interest litigation against the NCFSE, the Opposition meet assumes significance given the fact that apprehensions of ``saffronisation'' have been confirmed by the social science textbooks that were released in subsequent days.

Claiming that the social science books had certain distortions not only in Indian history but also in

world history, the CPI national secretary, D. Raja, said the meeting would formulate a future course of action in the light of this ``evidence''.

Given the fact that the AICC meeting on saffronisation also concluded with a call to mobilise public opinion on the issue and take it out of the political domain, the Congress is expected to propose this at tomorrow's meeting.

As the chairman of AICC's Department of Policy Planning & Co-ordination, Salman Khursheed, put it: ``The Congress has decided to join hands with all those who are uncomfortable with the NCFSE and work towards ensuring that this syllabus does not survive even the duration of the current dispensation at the Centre.''

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