PERUNNA: Any intervention or reform in the sensitive sectors such as education should be initiated by authorities concerned only after taking all the stake holders into confidence, Maharashtra Governor K Sankaranarayanan said here on Sunday.
Inaugurating the 134th Mannam Jayanti celebrations here, Sankaranarayanan said the ideal way would be to take a constructive decision before initiating reforms in the education sector. Organisations such as the Nair Service Society (NSS) had taken up their yeomen service in the education sector when there were none else to serve the needy in society, he said.
He said that any attempts to belittle or challenge the services of such organisations would not be spared by the masses. "Experience and history have proved that the organisations had outgrown such challenges in an assertive manner," he said.
The essence of Indian democracy is the variety of cultures inborn in the nation and the constitution guarantees to the right to ensure the identities of the various communities, the Governor said. "Every community organisation has the right to fight to safeguard its identity," he said.
The NSS and its present leadership have the responsibility to carry forward and strengthen the laudable work done by predecessors to serve society in the areas of education and health. The leadership has every right and freedom to oppose any move that would hinder the democratically and constitutionally bestowed rights enjoyed by the organisation and the community," he said.
Paying tributes to Mannath Padmanabhan, Sankaranarayanan said it was wrong to merely evaluate the contributions of persons like the doyen in terms of his service to the community to which he was born into. "Stalwart visionaries like Mannath Padmanabhan belonged to humanity. People like him had taken the lead in the forward march of humanity. Not even governments of present day would be able to initiate reforms which Mannam single handedly did nearly a century ago," Sankaranarayanan said. He drew the ability to attempt and successfully complete the Herculean tasks from the love and affection bestowed by the people. "In a way, that was the real essence of democracy," he said.
Delivering his commemorative talk, Congress leader P J Kurian MP said time has come to sort out the contradictions in ensuring social justice under the peculiar situation prevailing in the state. Unlike the scenario at the nationallevel, the ground realities in Kerala remained positive for the minority communities, which controls majority of the educational institutions. The different reality calls for different strategies for ensuring social justice, economic justice and equality among communities, he said. He observed that the equidistance policy of the NSS towards the political parties had never been static, but was of dynamic nature as it sided with justice all the time. Mathrubhumi managing editor P V Chandran delivered the commemoration address.
NSS president P V Neelakanta Pillai presided over the function. General secretary P K Narayana Panicker made the introductory remarks. Secretary G Sukumaran Nair welcomed the gathering.
A bevy of leaders as usual, mostly from the Congress and the UDF bandwagon, were present in the dignitaries pavilion at the meet. KPCC president Ramesh Chennithala, MPs Kodikkunnil Suresh, Jose K Mani, N Peethambara Kurup, Anto Antony and K C Venugopal and MLAs Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan, Varkala Kahar, N Jayaraj, P C Vishnunath and K Babuprasad and K Suresh Kurup exMP were among those who had attended.
