Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has called for a unity of all students to fight the ongoing saffronisation and commercialisation of education sector in the country.
His call for unity is significant that it comes in the backdrop of a mediation between the Students Federation of India (SFI) and All India Students Federation (AISF) held at the behest of Communist Party of India (Marxist) State secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan and CPI State secretary Kanam Rajendran.
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The Chief Minister was inaugurating a seminar on ‘Challenges faced by secular education in the era of the Sangh Parivar’ as part of the 44th State Conference of the AISF here on Sunday.
“It is a matter of pride that it is the Left student organisations who are fighting the attempts at saffronisation of education across the country. Right wing forces are on the lookout to destroy this great force of unity of the students. It is only by staying united and defeating these forces can we resist saffronisation and commercialisation,” said the Chief Minister.
He said that the Modi government was attempting to open the entire education sector to neo-liberal forces through the implementation of the National Education Policy (NEP).
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“We should realise that the NEP is a tool for the privatisation of the entire education sector. With its implementation, the government is going against the federal character of the constitution. Through this system, they will try to implement a monolithic, standardised education across the country. The Sangh Parivar is making a declaration that they are not ready to accept the diversity of the country. We cannot accept this attempt to hand over the education sector to monopolies,” he said.
Accusing Sangh Parivar
The Chief Minister accused the Sangh Parivar of injecting communal poison into the minds of children by rewriting history and promoting anti-science propaganda.
“There is nothing wrong in having a relook at history and science. But, this has to be done by professional scientists and historians based on new findings, and not based on the whims and fancies of people in power. One of the reasons for this saffronisation and re-writing of history is that the Sangh has not played any major role in our freedom struggle. They were mostly known for writing apology letters and collaborating with the British. They are troubled by this history and want to hide this,” he said.