CHENNAI: Ideology in Indian education is not something new, according to Union Minister of State for Commerce and Industry, Nirmala Sitharaman, who drew from experience studying at Jawaharlal Nehru University, to state that some persons were given unfair advantage in the leftist bastion.
The Minister was hitting back at the barely veiled opinion of the Communist Party of India (CPI) MP Ritabrata Banerjee, who had spoken about how successive governments at the centre had long been apathetic towards cultivating Indian education.
Banerjee questioned the logic of appointing YS Rao who had expressed his belief in the caste system as head of the Indian Council of Historical Research.
“The government in power has to keep in mind that intolerance should not creep into education. Even renowned historians like Romila Thapar have questioned who YSR’s credentials,” he said.
Sitharaman hit back saying,” There have been situations where professors could not get their papers published because they did not wear a particular colour on their hands,” she added.
Sitharaman said that as long as education is not commercialised, there will be government involvement.
“There is a very fine balance and we have to make sure that it does not get skewed,” she said.
Union Human Resource Development Minister Smriti Irani, who was also on the panel chaired by Prabhu Chawla, stated unequivocally that the present government was correcting the course of the last decade but those were not making the headlines.
“But I am not here for affixing blame but to set a course for the future,” she said talking about the centre’s measures.
Salman Khurshid, Congress leader, took a different view and said that he did not agree with the statements that Indian education was dismal. “India is too large for generalizations.” he said.