In another case of the Mamata government locking horns with the Modi government, it has reportedly conveyed to all the colleges under it that they can ignore the University Grants Commission (UGC)’s directive to live telecast PM Modi’s speech on 11th September.
The PM would be giving this speech on the 125th anniversary of Swami Vivekananda’s address to the World Parliament of Religions in Chicago.
According to reports, the state Education Minister Partha Chatterjee in a press conference on Friday stated that the Modi government cannot give such a directive without informing or reaching an agreement with the state government. He called the directive unacceptable by alleging that it was a clear attempt to saffronise the education.
According to him, the state colleges and Universities were surprised at by the UGC circular and approached the state government. He then reportedly told them that there was no need to adhere to the given directive. This given circular covers about 40,000 of the nation’s educational institutes.
Just recently the Mamata government had also ignored another such directive. Just before the last Independence Day it was reported that the Mamata Government had ordered the schools to ignore a Central government circular which had prescribed a fixed format to be followed for the Independence Day celebrations. The schools were instead asked to carry out regular celebrations. Even then, state education Minister Partha Chatterjee had commented on the matter by stating that, the feeling of patriotism cannot be forced down someone.
The HRD Ministry had also reportedly written to the states on 7th August to create a “patriotic mood” by holding events between August 9 and 30. This circular was reportedly aimed at building a “mass fervour” around the PM’s New India Mission. This was also rejected.
The Mamata government had also protested against the Centre’s developmental policies in the past. We had reported how West Bengal was the only state which hadn’t participated in Modi government’s cleanliness survey and was also renaming the Center’s flagship schemes because the latter was revising the expense sharing percentages.
