President of India Ram Nath Kovind inaugurated the centenary celebration of the iconic National High School (NHS) and National Education Society (NES) of Karnataka on Saturday in the city and wished that “the second century of the National Education Society would be better than its first”.
Mr. Kovind said the NES was also unique as a student of the school, H. Narasimhaiah, also led the institution for so long. “We are here to also honour his memory,” he said, to loud cheers by thousands of students of the NES institutions who had gathered.
However, the celebration has left a section of the alumni and former faculty members disappointed.
While the lack of proper acknowledgement of the contribution of theosophist and freedom fighter Annie Besant, the founder of the society, came under much criticism by some, others felt that clubbing the event along with the inaugural of Adamya Chetana Seva Utsava – 2018 was uncalled for. Adamya Chetana is an NGO of which BJP leader and Union Minister Ananth Kumar is the chief patron.
Annie Besant’s role
Mr. Kovind was the only person to remember Besant in his speech. “Centenary celebration of the National High School was a symbol of the nation building of Annie Besant,” he said. Besant’s picture or mention in any form was conspicuous by its absence in both the invitation card and also on the stage.
This was even after H. Nagabhushan Rao, a retired teacher of the NHS and president of the alumni association, NHS Forum, having written recently to the organisers about Besant’s role not being acknowledged in the invitation.
Mr. Rao, said the alumni association was not involved in the celebration, and added, “The programme should have been organised in a way that all the alumni of the school could meet. The NHS Forum is also celebrating the centenary of the school through alumni meets, which we will continue.”
Most of the illustrious alumni of the NES institutions and even former faculty members did not turn up for the event.
N.S. Mukunda, founder of the Citizen Action Forum and an alumnus of both the NHS and National College, came down heavily on the celebration. “It is strongly condemnable that an educational institution has been hijacked by non-educational causes, especially political,” he said.
An alumnus of the school who is now a senior bureaucrat in the State expressed his disappointment at how the centenary celebration of the NES, which has as a glorious history, was reduced to a “sideshow at a private programme of a politician”.
A.H. Rama Rao, president of the NES, however, defended the decision to hold the two programmes together.
“We wouldn’t have been able to organise such a big programme and get the President of India for it. So we held the two together after internal consultations. This is only an inaugural of the centenary celebration and we will organise several programmes for the next three years, till 2020, which is the centenary year of Dr. H. Narasimhaiah,” he said.
Earlier, in his address, Mr. Kovind said he was happy to inaugurate Adamya Chetana Seva Utsava – 2018 along with the centenary celebration of the NES, as both were related to education.
