People's Democracy

EDITORIAL

BJP's Perfidy Exposed

THE mayhem caused by the BJP, when it walked out hurling abusive fabrications, at the first meeting of the Central Advisory Board on Education (CABE) reconstituted after a decade, is illustrative of its belligerence in pursuing its communal agenda. There are various aspects in this regard where the record needs to be set right.

First, the BJP refused to reconstitute the CABE all through its six years in office. It did so precisely because it needed not to have any consultative body whose opinion could hamper its relentless pursuit of communalising education and the rewriting of Indian history. In a federal structure envisaged by our Constitution with education being a concurrent subject, the consultation with the states is imperative in the field of education. The BJP chose to ride roughshod over this important element of our federal structure of our Constitution. Once again, precisely to unilaterally impose its communalisation drive in accordance with the RSS vision of converting the secular democratic character of the Indian republic into a rabidly communal and fascistic “Hindu Rashtra.”

Secondly, it went about the task of rewriting the text books without any consultations with the states and in defiance of an open and public campaign by well reasoned rationale educationists who saw the effort of the BJP government as  brazen communalisation.

Thirdly, their current campaign that their efforts at communalisation of education were upheld by the Supreme Court and the President of India is patently untrue. The Supreme Court had opined that changes in the syllabi need not have the approval of the CABE legally and technically. It by no stretch of imagination granted the seal of approval to the content of the changes that Mr. Murli Manohar & Co were bringing about. Therefore, to claim that the Supreme Court has upheld the commualisation drive of the BJP government is not merely a misinterpretation of the judgement but an insult to the Supreme Court. The present union minister for human resource development, Arjun Singh, has categorically stated that there was no communication from the President of India regarding this matter ever.

The moot point therefore, is to note that the present effort is to undo the damage done by the BJP-led NDA government and to restore the education system in consonance with the spirit and content of the Indian Constitution.

It is this truth that the RSS/BJP seek to mask by hurling libelous charges that the restoration of the content of Indian education in line with the Indian Constitution is being done under the pressure of the Marxists. In a way they are paying us a compliment as the staunchest defenders of the republican character of the Indian Constitution! It must be noted that by restoring the content of education to what it was before the RSS/BJP damaged it, nothing of the Marxist world outlook or the elements of class struggle are being added. The communists and the Indian Left will continue to propagate their ideology by virtue of the right provided by our Constitution. Unlike the fascistic communalists, the communists do not destroy or distort the education system for this purpose.

Another absurd charge that the BJP is now hurling is that they are doing the same as the non-BJP education ministers did earlier when they walked out. There can be no comparison between the two events. The conference of the education ministers convened by Murli Manohar Joshi was not a meeting of the CABE. That only effort at consultation was to begin with an invocation of Saraswati Vandana. Rightly, many education ministers protested saying that while Saraswati Vandana was part of the Indian tradition, so are many other invocations belonging to different religious persuasions that cohabit India. Further, even within the fold of Hindu religion, the atheism of Charvaka and the anti-ritual rationalism of the Lokayata are as much part of the Indian tradition as Saraswati Vandana. By choosing to invoke only the latter, the then BJP government was clearly expressing its communal orientation as well as espousing the caste hierarchy of the brahminical order at the exclusion of all other Indian traditions. This was naturally unacceptable for anyone who accepts the spirit and content of our republican secular democratic Constitution.

Secondly, the objections at this conference arose also because it was to be addressed by one Mr Chitlangia, a businessman by profession but chairman of the RSS-run Vidya Bharati. The education ministers of the state naturally were incensed that a non-official of the RSS variety was being called to lecture on what ought to be the content of Indian education. Clearly therefore what the vast majority of the education ministers did then by walking out was to protest against the blatant communalism sought to be perpetuated by Murli Manohar Joshi & Co. What the BJP is seeking to do today by walking out is to oppose the correction of the distortion that they in the first place initiated. They are thus reaffirming their commitment to destroy the secular democratic character of the Indian republic.

Finally, we must note the RSS threat to sue the HRD minister, Arjun Singh, because he had linked the RSS with the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi. However much the RSS may seek to obfuscate its role in the Mahatma’s assassination, facts now confirm, both of the court proceedings then and the subsequent enquiry by the Kapoor Commission, that the RSS was not merely involved but was the inspiration for this assassination. A G Noorani has documented this evidence systematically in his recent book on the Mahatma’s assassination. (Savarkar and Hindutva – The Godse Connection; Leftword Books, 2003) Further, Nathuram Godse’s brother Gopal Godse has recently gone on record to state that Nathuram alongwith all his brothers including Gopal was a member of the RSS. Only after the assassination, at the request of the RSS, Nathuram denied his association. When told that L K Advani denies this, he called Mr. Advani a “coward.”

The minister has dared the RSS to go ahead and sue him on this count. So do we. All those who cherish the secular democratic character of the Indian republic must implead in this case not merely to call the RSS bluff but to reaffirm the  commitment of India and its people to the fundamental tenets of our republican Constitution.