NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s firm opposition to proposals from the BJP-governed states to include his life story in the school curriculum has led to Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh on Friday backing down from the move.
Modi had come down heavily against plans of some BJP-ruled states, including Rajasthan, to include his life story in the school curriculum. Opposing the move to include any chapter on living persons in the prescribed syllabi for the school students, the PM had asked them instead to include chapters on several stalwarts and greats from the country’s glorious history. Earlier as soon as reports about the purported move to include his life story in the school syllabi emerged,Modi had called up Gujarat Education Minister Bhupendrasinh Chudasama to ask him to stop the move.
“Narendrabhai called me this morning (on Friday) and told me that it is not appropriate to include the life and events of a living person in the school syllabus. He was not happy with the idea of teaching his life in primary schools. He asked us not to go ahead with that project.”
“I told Narendrabhai that his wish is like a command. I assured him that the state govt will not go ahead with the project,” Chudasama told reporters in Gandhinagar .
In Bhopal, MP Minister of State for School Education Deepak Joshi said, “the state govt will not include Prime Minister Modi’s life sketch in school text books as wished by him in a tweet.”
Thursday’s reports that emanated from Gujarat, of which Modi was Chief Minister till a week ago, said the state govt was planning to introduce a chapter on his life story to inculcate ‘leadership’ skills among students, following which Modi took to Twitter to oppose the idea. Earlier, there were reports that MP and Rajasthan too were planning to include Modi’s life story in their respective school syllabi.
An Official Turn
Five days after being sworn-in, Modi on Friday moved into the PM’s official residence at the Race Course Road.
Modi, who was staying temporarily at the Gujarat Bhawan, went to the 5, Race Course Road on Monday and a small pooja was performed there.