Opposition sees red in 'saffronisation'

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, AUG. 16. The Opposition today, for the first time, joined hands in the Lok Sabha to nail the Government for ``saffronising'' education in pursuit of its ``narrow and divisive'' agenda.

While the CPI(M) leader, Mr. Somnath Chatterjee, charged the BJP allies with strengthening the hands of the Sangh Parivar, the Congress president, Ms. Sonia Gandhi, warned the Government against changing the National Education Policy of 1986 without the consent of Parliament.

The Opposition forced a discussion on the issue and found an ally in the Telugu Desam Party. The discussion went on for over four hours before the House was adjourned as the war of words got intense. The Union Minister for Human Resource Development, Dr. Murli Manohar Joshi, therefore, could not reply.

Ms. Sonia Gandhi asserted that since the 1986 National Policy on Education was ``sanctified by the endorsement of Parliament, it could be changed only with its consent''.

Compared to Mr. Chatterjee and Mr. Vijay Kumar Malhotra of the BJP, Ms. Sonia's 15-minute speech, which ended with an assertion that ``we will not let the Government get away with ideological sleights of hand'', was fairly free of interruptions.

Of the view that the National Curriculum Framework for School Education did not have the mandate of the nation, Ms. Sonia said ``we cannot and must not accommodate the ideological idiosyncrasies of a particular school of thought, for to mix communal ideology with history textbooks and scientific facts is tantamount to playing with fire''.

Attacking the Government for substituting a national agenda with a hidden one, she questioned the powers that be for not making any headway on the long-standing Bill to make education a Fundamental Right.

Earlier, initiating what eventually became a thinly-attended-yet- acrimonious discussion under Rule 193, Mr. Chatterjee was critical of the BJP's allies for strengthening the hands of ``this front organisation of the RSS'' and facilitating its pursuit of a ``sinister and divisive agenda''. Stating that the RSS knew only too well that education was the best vehicle for influencing the mind of a nation, Mr. Chatterjee accused the BJP's allies of being party to the bid to ``communalise consciousness''.

The CPI(M) leader referred to the filing up of educational institutions with people having an RSS background; preparation of the National Curriculum Framework - a blueprint for lowering the quality of school education without proper debate; and introduction of courses in astrology and Vedic rituals at the university level to present his case.

The TDP member, Ms. Sugna Kumari, affirmed her party's commitment to secularism and a curriculum that celebrated the composite culture India has cherished till date.

Defending whatever the NDA was doing in the field of education, the BJP leader Mr. Vijay Kumar Malhotra, quoted Mahatma Gandhi extensively to show that much of the changes being introduced were in keeping with the vision the Father of the Nation had for India. Accusing the Communists of whipping up a frenzy over a non-issue, he said astrology was being studied in India since the days of Jawaharlal Nehru.

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