Allies oppose 'saffronisation of education': BJP stands isolated

By Neena Vyas

NEW DELHI, AUG 20. The Bharatiya Janata Party finds itself totally isolated from its allies in the National Democratic Alliance on the issue of saffronisation of education. Leaders of the coalition parties have already let it be known that even if the Human Resource Development Ministry continues to push its agenda through, the States where they have their Governments will simply refuse to accept the new textbooks and the changes made in the syllabus. There is no way the Centre could force its view on the States.

Mr. Yerran Naidu, Leader of the Parliamentary Party of the Telugu Desam which is supporting the NDA Government from outside, let it be known that his party was totally opposed to any changes made in the syllabus without a proper national discussion and a thorough debate in Parliament. ``Any change can be made only with the full consent of the State Governments. Education is on the concurrent list and we will not accept the imposition of any new education policy,'' he emphasised.

When the National Agenda for Governance was drawn up, the BJP had agreed to leave behind all contentious issues, the leaders of allied parties said. Saffronisation of education is certainly a prickly subject on which the allies do not share the BJP's view. Irrespective of who wins how many brownie points in the ongoing parliamentary debate on saffronisation of education, the stance of the allies has made it clear that the Government cannot succeed in its effort.

Against `hidden agenda'

Besides the TDP, leaders of the DMK, Janata Dal (United), the Biju Janata Dal, and the Trinamool Congress (which is currently outside the NDA but is waiting for the green signal to re-join the alliance) have already spoken out against the attempt by the HRD Ministry to bring the ``hidden agenda'' of the RSS into areas of Government policy. All these parties are of the view that the secular and modern content of the National Education Policy must not be tampered with.

To give an example: political parties from the south are particularly opposed to the RSS/BJP idea of history, which encourages the view that India's history began with the dominance of the Aryans who they see as the ``original'' settlers in the Indo-Gangetic plains. They reject the more favoured view of eminent historians that the Aryans were nomads who came into India from Central Asia and they then took to settled agriculture after pushing the original Dravidian inhabitants south of the Vindhyas.

Mr. Devendra Prasad Yadav (JD-U) is also not impressed by the efforts of the HRD Ministry to introduce courses in astrology, change history textbooks with a view to glorifying the years of Hindu political dominance and denigrating the medieval period when the Mughal empire flourished. Neither in Bengal nor in Orissa where the Trinamool and the Biju Janata Dal have their base is the RSS view of history favoured.

It is being pointed out that most of the BJP leaders have not sent their own children and grandchildren to `shishu vidyalayas' run by the RSS or its various organisations. Why are they now trying to tamper with the education system which has by and large proved that it has kept up with the advances made in the West and elsewhere?

Another view was that the country had enough urgent problems that were crying for attention. What was the need to create an issue on which there are serious differences even within the NDA not to speak of the Opposition? Mr. Yerran Naidu recalled that his party had also opposed the offering of `Saraswati vandana' at official functions when a controversy on this had been created by the HRD Ministry.

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