Education Ministry always a 'hot potato' under Narendra Modi ::: Smriti Irani to Dharmendra Pradhan ... things have "come a long way"

Education or HRD Ministry always a 'hot potato' under BJP ... under both Narendra Modi and earlier under Vajpayee

Smriti Irani 

 

Smriti Irani to Dharmendra Pradhan ... things have "come a long way" 

 Smriti Irani was made HRD Minister in 2014 (May 26) when Modi took over. 

She was Rajya Sabha MP representing Gujarat. She was in office till July 5, 2016 when Prakash Javadekar had replaced her. Both are no longer ministers in Team Modi. 

On May 30, 2019, when Namo took over second time; Ramesh Pokhriyal, MP from Haridwar in Uttarakhand was given the portfolio. The former Uttarakhand CM was in chair till July 7, 2021. 

Then the responsibility had passed on to Dharmendra Pradhan, who was till then handling the juicy and high profile Petroleum ministry. 

Javadekar 

Ramesh Pokhriyal "Nishank"

Under Atal Bihari Vajapayee; Dr M M Joshi was the HRD Minister and he too kept on courting controversies.  

In 1996, for 16 days when Vajpayee was PM between May 16 and June 1; the HRD (Education) portfolio was with the Prime Minister only. 

Incidentally, Vajpayee's predecessor P V Narasimha Rao kept the portfolio with him for 120 days in 1996 after Madhavrao Scindia had resigned. 

Senior Scindia - and father of Union Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia had resigned protesting against Rao after his name figured in the Hawala scam.  

Dr Murli Manohor Joshi 

Dr. Murli Manohar Joshi’s tenure as Union HRD Minister (1998–2004) under Vajpayee faced intense accusations of the "saffronisation" of education, centered on textbook rewrites by the NCERT.

He had taken leader in the introduction of traditional Vedic courses, and so called "ideological appointments".  

Propaganda era : Is Gen Z aware of it ?

Commentary:

In contemporary setting, overwhelming Hindus in India are now at least getting assertive about defending their rights. 

This need not be mistaken with communalism per se. 

But Hindu assertiveness is becoming order of the day. 

There is nothing wrong is such assertiveness. What is to worry about that the fringe elements among Hindu fundamentalism is that they may also fall into wrong hands as has been with a section of minorities.

Hindus need to be careful about it. The same responsibility also remains with minorities as the feeling of rivalries between religious communities will be quite harmful. 

In this context Smriti Irani’s speech in 2016 was an eye opener especially in the context of motivated nature of lessons and passages prescribed in school text books under Congress-led UPA.

I am quoting here from the then HRD Minister’s speech:

“I wondered, where do our kids learn from? ……This is a history book for students of class IV - Teacher's Reader. The author of this book is Teesta Setalvad. 

This book has been commissioned by UPA's Kapil Sibal. The same UPA whose chairperson is Soniaji. Let's see what is to be taught to student of class 4. In our text and syllabus, we continue to perpetuate the colonial legacy of portraying ancient India, as synonymous with Hindu and Medieval India past with the Muslim."  (Smriti Irani) 

&&

I quote from this book…"When we teach Shivaji, Akbar, Aurangzeb as responsible educators and animators, 

we need to ask which Shivaji do we need to take into the classroom. 

It is not only against Shivaji that is taught. 

Congress politicians allowed the killings for three days during the Sikh riots. That is also taught. Hindu-Christian riots in Kanya Kumari. How the propaganda of Hindu organisations target Christian minorities." (Smriti) 

"You are teaching this to a child in the 4th standard. This is their idea of secular education. History taught to standard 6th. Kashmir is a much demonised land today...{pause} that the State militates against the atrocities of the Indian State”.

In her speech in Lok Sabha Smriti Irani asked “Are we shocked that our students go to universities and say "Kashmir ki azadi tak jung ladenge.."?

                                                  

All these lead us to a few questions. 

-Will Don Bosco, Matunga (Mumbai) try to explain its stand on these books?

-Will champions of freedom from across India- especially a few associated with Ahmedabad especially explain whether Teesta Setalvads still deserve to be hailed as a paragon of virtue?

- Politically was there no quid-pro-quo when Teesta fought against Narendra Modi and Kapil Sibal commissioned her to pen text books for children?

-Did Rahul Gandhi err in accompanying an ill-informed Anand Sharma to the JNU campus?

This is an age of empowerment and informed debate.

ends