On Wednesday (11th October), the Congress government in Karnataka constituted a committee of ‘experts’ to formulate the Karnataka State Education Policy which would replace the National Education Policy (NEP).
The state government has issued a ‘Government Order’ (GO) forming a 15-member committee headed by Professor and former Delhi UGC Chairman Sukhdev Thorat, with a secondary group of eight subject experts/advisers rendering expert input. The committee will submit its report on February 28 next year.
“The government is pleased to accord sanction to the State Education Policy Commission for the preparation of a draft Karnataka State Education Policy under the chairmanship of Professor Sukhdev Thorat, an eminent Educationist. Economist, Professor, Writer and Former Chairman of UGC New Delhi,” the GO stated.
As per the government circular, the 15-member committee includes- Professor S Japhet, Founding Director of the UGC-sponsored Centre for the Study of Social Exclusion and Inclusive Policy (CSSEEIP), Sudhir Krishnaswamy, Vice Chancellor of National Law School of India University (NLSIU), Sharat AnanthaMurthy, Professor, School of Physics, University of Hyderabad, A Narayana, Professor at Azim Premji University’s School of Policy and Governance, among others.
Meanwhile, Bhagyavana S Mudigoudra, Special Officer, Department of Higher Education, will be the commission’s Member Secretary, coordinating and maintaining the meeting’s proceedings.
In addition to the committee, an advisory board has been established for expert advice. It is interesting to note that the eight-member expert group includes protestor for hire Yogendra Yadav alongside Professor Rahamath Tarikere, Retd Professor in Kannada, Kannada University, Hampi; Professor Janaki Nair, Historian and Retd, Professor at the Centre for Historical Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Sonam Wangchuk, Engineer turned Education Reformer and Director of the Himalayan Institute of Alternatives, Ladakh (HIAL), Professor Valerian Rodrigues, and two others.
It is notable that the “Duggal Sahab” of political activism, Yogendra Yadav had admitted last year that the farmers’ protest in which he took the avatar of a ‘farmer leader’ was a “political stunt” meant to oust BJP from power. Moreover, Yadav had also given a similar statement in a debate on NDTV on 10 March 2022 while discussing the UP Assembly Election results. He said the farmer’s movement led by Samyukt Kisan Morcha played a vital role in building the foundation for the opposition parties to defeat the BJP in UP, however, the opposition parties essentially the Samajwadi Party did not play well.
Unsurprisingly, Yogendra Yadav also has links with the controversial financier and regime change specialist George Soros. It is notable that in February this year, George Soros openly expressed his disdain for Prime Minister Narendra Modi and accused him of crony capitalism saying that he has good relationships with businessman Gautam Adani. OpIndia has published detailed reports on George Soros’s Open Society Foundations (OSF) which has been backing anti-India elements operating inside India.
It is worth noting that previous UGC chairman Sukhdev Thorat, who would lead the aforementioned committee, has been a vocal opponent of reservations for the Economically Weaker Section (EWS). Thorat stated his discontent with the ‘upper caste’ Hindus, primarily Brahmins, “dominating” India’s power structure in an interview with Islamist propaganda portal Maktoob Media. Additionally, he insinuated that caste-based reservations should be applied to the private sector in order to narrow the gap between the upper castes and the SC, ST, and OBCs in terms of indicators like life expectancy, child mortality, etc.
After drafting the Hinduphobic Anti-Superstition Bill, Professor S Japhet joins the Congress government’s committee to frame Karnataka’s education policy
It is worth recalling that Professor S Japhet, founding director of the UGC-sponsored Centre for the Study of Social Exclusion and Inclusive Policy (CSSEEIP) was a prominent player in drafting the controversial Anti-Superstition Bill, in 2013. It is worth noting that the bill intended to outlaw ‘superstitious practices’ was a pet project of Karnataka CM P Siddaramaiah.
The controversial bill aimed to ban practices like made snana which involved any person or persons roll over (uruli seve) on the leaves of leftover food by other persons in any public or religious places or similar practices saying that it violated human dignity. Performing fire walks during Jatras and religious festivals, Baibiga practice which involved piercing of the jaw from one side to another, Mata mantra, Gandra Dora practices for treating snake, scorpion or dog bites etc were deemed inhuman acts.
“Creating panic in the minds of the public in general by way of invoking ghosts or mantras. Persuading, propagating or facilitating rituals that involve self-inflicted injuries such as hanging from a hook: inserted into the body (sidi) or pulling a chariot by hook inserted into the body,” the bill stated.
While the bill included self-inflicting injuries to define Hindu rituals, the bill did not mention Muharram, an occasion of mourning for the Shia sect of Muslims who inflict injuries to their own bodies using chains and sharp objects in public places. Moreover, the bill mentioned ‘ghosts’ and practices performed on the pretext of expelling them from the person possessed including physical assault and forcing one to perform sexual acts, however, there was no mention of Satan, Shaitan and Jinn and weird practices involved in expelling them from a person ‘possessed’ by them.
Back in 2013, Professor Japhet had said that through the bill an attempt has been made to “define the superstitious practices as those that cause grave physical, mental or sexual exploitation or offends human dignity”. It is amusing that Japhet failed to or deliberately did not ‘define’ comparable superstitious practices in other religions.
Notably, after much outrage from the people and political parties, the bill was passed by both houses of the state legislature in 2017 when Congress leader Siddaramaiah was the chief minister of Karnataka.
Two years before drafting the bill, Japhet wrote an extensive piece on the plight of Dalit Christians in 2011, in which he admitted that Christians from non-Dalit communities discriminate against Christians who convert from Dalit communities. Despite this, S Japhet did not include evangelism and conversion based on the promise of equality as a superstition.
Congress rejected the Centre’s National Education Policy
The formation of a committee to frame Karnataka state education policy comes after the Congress government had in August announced that its government will implement its own policy rejecting the Centre’s NEP. In May this year, Siddaramiah had said that he would not allow the education sector to be adulterated in the name of the new education policy.
Siddaramaiah claimed that the Central Government’s national education agenda is ‘incompatible’ with the federal form of governance. “It has several anomalies that undermine the Constitution and democracy,” remarked the Chief Minister. “Uniform education system does not suit a nation like India which has diverse religions, languages and cultures”. While the chief minister asserted that the NEP will not ‘suit’ India since the country has diverse languages, the NEP directs to lay “emphasis on promoting multilingualism and Indian languages; The medium of instruction until at least Grade 5, but preferably till Grade 8 and beyond, will be the home language/mother tongue/local language/regional language.”
