The Congress has said that the Union Human Resource Development Ministry, under its new head Prakash Javadekar, will encourage the private sector at the expense of public educational institutions.
“Given his kindness in his previous avatar, there is a need to protect the public sector,” Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari said.
He was repeating an allegation levelled against Mr. Javadekar when he was Environment Minister — that he had given concessions to industrialist Gautam Adani and withdrawn the Rs. 200-crore fine imposed on Adani Port and SEZ Ltd for environmental damage, apparently caused during the construction of Mundra port.
How was privatisation under the BJP-led NDA government and the Congress-led rule different?
“The difference is between subverting the public educational system, assaulting its autonomy, and incentivising private educational institutions… they want to emasculate India’s public education system and hand it over to the private sector,” Mr. Tewari said.
Pointing out that the Modi government had cut public spending on education, he said: “During the UPA rule, the budgetary allocation for education went up from Rs. 11,000 crore in 2004 to Rs. 82,000 crore in 2014. The BJP-led NDA rolled it back to Rs. 69,000 crore when it came to power. The following year, it increased it only to Rs. 72,394 crore — almost Rs. 10,000 crore less than the figure when we demitted office.”
The budget of the University Grants Commission that was responsible for funding public universities and maintaining standards of institutions of higher education had been slashed by 55 per cent by the current dispensation. “Even more scary,” Mr. Tewari continued, “is the frontal assault by the HRD Ministry on the autonomy of our public universities, the taking away of the right to decide their syllabi and the interference by the RSS in our educational systems. Recently in Chhattisgarh, six Vice-Chancellors were summoned by RSS functionaries for a review of education.”
