Author: Our Political Bureau
Publication: The Economic Times
Date: September 13, 2002
The BJP-led National Democratic
government at the Centre today received a shot in the arm when the Supreme
Court held that there was no attempt to saffronise the school syllabus
in the new National Curriculum Framework for Secondary Education and directed
its immediate implementation.
In a majority judgment, the apex
court rejected a PIL filed by Aruna Roy and other educationists, and said
that "non-consultation with Central Advisory Board for Education (CABE)
cannot be held to be ground for setting aside the national curriculum".
The three Judges gave separate judgements in which Justice M B Shah and
Justice D M Dharmadhikari concurred. However, Justice H K Sema, though
agreed that non-consultation of CABE could not be a ground for setting
aside the NCFSE, directed the Centre to immediately reconstitute the CABE
and seek its views on the new curriculum. This cannot but be a setback
for the political rivals of the BJP, who have been trying to build up a
campaign against the government. Their efforts have been receiving support
from Leftist academicians, who have benefited hugely under the successive
Congress dispensations.
In the Supreme Court, both Justice
Shah and Justice Dharmadhikari were categorical in their finding that teaching
of the essence of all religions, as was sought to be done in NCFSE, could
not be equated with imparting of religious instructions.
Soon after the apex court pronounced
its verdict, HRD minister Murli Manohar Joshi hit back at his political
rivals and said the entire campaign against the government was politically
motivated. "The Supreme Court has vindicated our stand. The allegations
of saffronising education hurled at us were politically motivated, mischievous
or made out of ignorance,' Mr Joshi told reporters. The minister said that
the apex court has "demolished' charges that there was a "sinister move
and hidden agenda" in the framing of the National Curriculum Framework
for Secondary Education.
