Human resource development minister Murli Manohar Joshi on Friday dismissed opposition charges of saffronisation of the education system as politically motivated to create a division within the National Democratic Alliance. The hue and cry is based on total distortion and with a pure political intention, Joshi told newsmen in Beijing before concluding his visit to china to attend the E-9 ministerial review meeting of the world's nine most populated countries.
"It is purely a political agenda to create a divide between NDA and its partners. It will not succeed," he said. "During the debate in parliament (on Monday), I clearly told them (the critics) that if anyone can show a single deviation from the approved national education policy of 1986, the programme of action of 1992 and the report of the standing committee of human resource development ministry, I will rectify that. But nobody has come forward," he said.
Moreover, Joshi said he had written to all political leaders to debate the NCERT document in their respective party fora and respond. "They have not responded and there has been no rejection of the document either," he said.
The CPI-M and Sahmat were making a noise about the issue with a pure political motive, he said.
Joshi said the government would lay stress on value education which had become necessary in view of some disturbing tendencies in educational institutions. He said violent activities in educational institutions and cases of disrespect to teachers and girls have caught his attention.
Bureau Report