The Hindu : CPI, CPI(M) for review of SC verdict

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Sep 14, 2002

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National

CPI, CPI(M) for review of SC verdict

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI SEPT. 13. The CPI and the CPI (M) today termed the Supreme Court judgement on National Curriculum Framework (NCF) as `unfortunate', and said it should be reviewed by the full bench of the apex court.

The Congress, on the other hand, said while it had no problem with the judgement delivered on the basis of legalistic merits, its objection was `ideological and political, not legal'.

The two Left parties said the apex court had held that given the present legal situation, the procedure adopted by the National Council for Education, Research and Training (NCERT) in formulating the NCF was not unconstitutional. "This is unfortunate. Tampering with the secular content of the education system has serious consequences to both our federal polity and secularism, which the Supreme Court itself has defined as a basic feature of our Constitution'', the parties said in a joint statement.

Asking for a review, the Left parties said this was also necessary to establish a mechanism to evolve a national consensus on the `concurrent' subject of education in the country's federal polity and made mandatory. They said till such a national mechanism was evolved, the States would retain their autonomy to work out their own curriculum framework.

On the issue of content of the NCF and instructions in religion, they said the Supreme Court had correctly cautioned the Government to maintain a constant vigil on the part of those imparting religious education from the primary stage to the higher level otherwise "there is a potent danger of religious education being perverted''. "Such caution, however, reassures no one today, given the aggressive communalisation of education undertaken by the Vajpayee Government," the statement said.

The Congress too expressed its apprehension saying while education of all religions was acceptable in principle, it could be violated in practice. "We have doubts about intent (of the BJP-led Government) and it calls for continued vigilance," the party spokesman, S. Jaipal Reddy, said.

Mr. Reddy said the party would continue to insist that a meeting of the Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE) should be held and wondered why the Vajpayee Government was `shying away' from consulting the body in time honoured tradition.

He said that while it was true that CABE was a non-statutory body it was equally true that this body had been instrumental in evolving a national consensus on curriculum framework between States and the Centre on one hand and on the other hand among various political parties in the form of Chief Ministers.

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