Detoxification and other Policies Of The New Govt

08-30-2006, 10:56 PM

Arjun Singh ko kya mila: Swah oye swah
While Arjun Singh has been jockeying for Muslims at every forum like Aligarh Muslim University, reservations for Muslims etc, they did not think twice before rejecting his appeal for singing of National Freedom Song

Vande Matram.

While he has been promoting reservations for backward castes, 1 Yadav has hit him in NCERT books by putting forward ulta pulta History of India which is derogatory to some in India.

09-01-2006, 01:08 AM

mail in Pioneer
QUOTENCERT beyond redemption
Apropos JS Rajputâs article âDistorting historyâ (August 23) I do not agree with his evaluation of the quality and expertise of the NCERT faculty, past or present. In fact, the NCERT as an institution has no expertise in the field of school education and has distorted it beyond redemption. The NCERT lost its autonomy when Nurul Hassan, then Union Education Minister, imposed 19 subject expert committees on the NCERT in 1975-76 to develop curriculum and prepare school textbooks. These committees later turned into what can be termed âacademic mafiaâ. Human Resource Development Minister Arjun Singh is following the same route by appointing those with little knowledge of school education in the textbook advisory committees. Regarding the quality and expertise of the NCERT faculty members, the less said the better. They have turned every recommendation of the Kothari Commission Report, âNational Education and Developmentâ, upside down.
Sudarshan Kumar Kapur

09-01-2006, 07:31 PM

<img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/thumbsdownsmileyanim.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='thumbsdownsmileyanim.gif' /> CPM seeks EC Reform - Communist attempt to undermine Indian ConstitutionIn the wake of its recent tiffs with the Election Commission, the CPI(M) on Wednesday sought a Constitution amendment on the modalities of appointment and removal of the Election Commissioners and to make them accountable for their "omissions and commissions". Initiating a debate on the need to reform the EC, CPI(M) General Secretary Prakash Karat on Wednesday circulated a note calling for legislative measures relating to the composition of the commission and its powers and jurisdictions. The CPI(M)'s demand comes after the Left parties' recent brush with the EC over the unprecedented five-phased assembly elections in West Bengal and the office of profit controversy after petitions against several Left MPs, including Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee, seeking their disqualification. The CPM's Brinda Karat was most vocal when she called the Election Commission biased. Accusing the Election Commission of playing an "extremely biased" role during the West Bengal assembly elections, CPI-M leader Brinda Karat today said her party's proposal for reforms of the poll panel was aimed at generating a debate on its powers and jurisdiction.

So the question is what has got the CPI-M all riled up against the one Constitutional Authority in India that all Indians have been so proud of and that one office of last resort which had given legitimacy to the electoral process in India.

The reasons for the CPI-M's ire are a little baffling. The West Bengal elections were a waterhed victory for the CPI-M. It improved its vote share, it also improved its seat share in Urban West Bengal. It pretty much decimated the opposition in West Bengal and firmly established the so called "Brand Buddha" to further show that Bengal had moved on from the Jyoti Basu era. So in an election that the Communists did so well why is the CPI-M so worked up. If the elections were the best in West Bengal in decades a fact acknowledged by the opposition Trinamul Congress lead by Mamata Bannerjee, what is the CPI-M's gripe against the election commission. Is it that the elections were too tough and clean to the CPI-M's liking. Is it that it is not satisfied with a whopping victory unless it was won on its terms rather than on the terms of the election commission. Or is it that the CPI-M has a pathological hatred for true democracy.

Well let us first look at the CPI-M's run in with the law. First the Election Commission got tough on voter's lists in West Bengal. It weeded out all the benami voters and it spent months cleaning it up much to the chagrin of the communist cadre who pretty much have treated West Bengal elections as their personal sports rigged and doctored to suit their local interests. It then announced an unprecedented 5 phase schedule for the elections to ensure adequate monitoring and law enforcement was in place much to the discomfort of the communists who were used to the strong arm booth tactics none of which was going to be entertained by the Election Commission. The result was a poll with little or no violence, barely on bogus voting and hardly any repolls. The communists who have been so used to elections where it is business usual and where the Communist Politburo was the final arbiter just could not tolerate a higher authority.

So what has the CPI-M called for now and what does it mean ?

Getting into the specifics of what the Sitaram Yechury, Prakash Karat combine has asked for. The note calls for legislative measures relating to the composition of the commission and its powers and jurisdictions. So right off the Communists want the legislature which means the politicians, which in today's day and age is not the lok sabha but the Rajya Sabha which has become viagra for all the electile dysfunctional leaders of the day to be final the arbiter of who is appointed to the Election Commission and what powers they have. So what this means is folks that those who have never faced a real election in their life, have never felt it was important to be directly accountable to the people, will at free will tamper with the composition and the powers of the election commission unbridled to suit their political objectives. Given that they never will contest a real election their motives will be always self interest and not the public interest.

Prakash Karat reveals his diabolical anti-democratic mindset that reeks of the Soviet Union and the Chinese communist party when he talks off requiring that no election commissioner be allowed to be associated with any political party after their retirement. Folks look at the Communist Party's gall it believes that the politicians interest is so important that it can take away Constitutionally Guaranteed rights of a Private Citizen to contest elections and pursue politics of his or her choice just because the Politburo Hot Heads dont like him or her. Prakash Karat goes onto become very specfic by demanding that the election commissioners take on oath they will never become members of parliament. So while Sitaram Yechury and Prakash Karat who have never faced a godamm election in their pitiable lifes and who have arrogated to themselves Rajya Sabha seats for a life time, they want the election commissioners to forgo their fundamental rights. Folks you can see it in black and white the anti-democratic mindset of these psuedo-progressives who are no better than Stalin or Mao.

So this is a defining moment in Indian Democracy. This issue is a litmus test for those who are for true democracy in India versus those who are for a Pseudo democracy in India at the whims and fancies of the Politburo. So here is Offstumped's challenge to the rag tag progressive bunch that keep company with Prakash Karat and Sitaram Yechury and whose conscience is perked everytime an issue of Human Rights crops up. So Teesta Setalvad, Javed Akhtar, Shabana Azmi, Rajeev Dhawan, Arundhati Roy and the rest of you, you cannot shy away and hide. You will have to come in the open and take a stance. You will have to come out in the open and say if you are for taking away the Fundamental Rights of Private Citizens to contest elections to suit the whims of the Communist Cabal or if you are for true democracy in India where the Election Commission remains free of political influence and where every private citizen has the Constitutional Guarantee to pursue his or her political objectives ubridled by oaths and undertakings. There cannot be anymore ambiguity or ambivalence. If we have to take your so called progressive democratic humans rights crusades with any credibility you will have to take a stance on this issue. Otherwise the next time your consicence perks up selectively on Rights Issues we know it is motivated, it is biased and it is selective. We will know that you are psuedo-progressives.

The Manmohan Singh, Sonia Gandhi Congress lead UPA and the Advani, Rajnath Singh BJP must denounce this anti-democratic move by the Communists in the strongest terms. It is a shame that the Congress and the BJP have lead the country to this sorry state of affairs where a motley group of Communists with no presence outside of West Bengal and Kerala, with electile dysfunctional leaders in the Rajya Sabha have arrogated to themselves the gall to subvert public debate with influence far disporportionate to their electoral strength. The blame for this goes to Messrs Atal Behari Vajpayee and Lal Krishna Advani for having bungled the NDA's chances in the 2004 elections that saw the Communists in the driving seat in the center. The Right of Center movement in India and Offstumped can never forgive them for this. The Congress also shares the blame for having entertained the communists to its own peril. Rather than focus on rebuilding itself in UP and Bihar and making it a 2 party fight between the Congress and the BJP, the Congress has allowed itself to be at the mercy of the Communists.

All Indians irrespective of political hues or regional colors have been proud of the Election Commission for being the last resort of Constitutional Authority for having cleaned up the electoral process, introduced 100% electronic voting an achievement yet to be seen in developed democracies like the United States, eliminated concepts of booth capturing and rigging and brought in a commendable level of credibility to election results in states like Bihar. Chief Election Commissioners ( CEC ) like T.N. Seshan, M.S. Gill, GVG Krishnamurthy, KJ Rao, JM Lyngdoh deserve the nations thanks and the nation's support in any public endeavours they choose to pursue post their retirement.

Offstumped Bottomline: The CPI-M's proposals for Election Commission Reforms are diabolical and anti-democracy. They are not reforms but a subversion of Constitutionally guaranteed rights and democracy. That Prakash Karat and Yechury had the gall to suggest such a Constitutional atrophy in serious public debate reflects that the Communists will always be Communists in the Kremlin, Beijing, Havana, Pyong Nyang mould, democracy and elections notwithstanding. Prakash Karat owes it to the nation to explain what Public Interest and not Public Servant's Interest is served by these proposals. Failing which the so-called Progressive Human Rights Activists must make clear if they are for or against True Democracy in India and if they are with or against the Communists on this issue

09-12-2006, 01:27 AM

QUOTEToxic history books 
The Pioneer Edit Desk
Will NCERT heed High Court order?
Those seeking to cleanse history textbooks of toxic 'secular' content have scored an important victory last week with NCERT being instructed by Delhi High Court to issue an advisory against three passages which council officials and their political patrons, displaying characteristic arrogance, refused to accept as constituting defamation against entire communities. These offending portions will now require excising, not by recalling books that have been issued but in the form of an advisory which the NCERT Director will send to all schools. The objectionable references in question are about Guru Govind Singh, Mughal Emperor Akbar and the ancient Indian astronomer, Aryabhatta, whose achievements have been belittled. This is not the first time that textbooks authored by Marxist 'historians' on the payroll of the Government have run into trouble and it is unlikely to be the last we have heard of the issue. In the mid-1990s, there was a messy wrangle over unseemly references to Guru Govind Singh. Despite the Punjab and Haryana High Court issuing strictures, NCERT fought tooth and nail against incorporating amendments. In 2001, when the same text was still in circulation, similar remarks about Guru Tegh Bahadur, Jats, Sikhs and Jains were brought to NCERT's notice. Unlike in the past, those at the helm of affairs then had the good sense to stress the importance of pedagogy in school history courses. The need for preserving national pride is paramount and history is a means of achieving that end. The problem with Marxist 'historians' is that they are constantly trying to import into this country a negativist line from the former Soviet Union where "catch-them-young" was the name of the game and the commissars brooked no resistance in their drive to steam-roll regional and religious sensitivities.

Objectivity and neutralism should be matched by pedagogy when packaging history for impressionable minds. This is standard practice all over the world. India, a country that has suffered foreign invasion and divisive tendencies for a millennium, should by now have developed a formula to balance its pluralist ideals with the necessity of preserving national integrity. Instead, short-term, vote-bank oriented historiography continues to be the practice. In fact, NCERT, despite repeated judicial strictures against its dogmatic stand, continues to display amazing tenacity. For instance, a so-called "expert committee", constituted in response to an earlier Delhi High Court order, still refuses to acknowledge that the Aryan invasion theory is long dead and buried. It is high time this old debate is settled once for all because, from the nation building point of view, it is extremely important that future generations of Indians are liberated from the force-fed idea of inferiority that is implicit in the imperial theory, according to which the superior civilisation that prevailed in ancient India could not but be an import from the West.

10-30-2006, 10:20 PM

Arjun hints action against RSS-run schools QUOTE"The country is one and we cannot have different kind of education for different religions and different regions," Singh said calling upon the NSUI cadres to rise up to the occasion and act.

Calling the situation a challenge to NSUI, Singh said during the recent past the RSS institutions have dented the education system a lot.


FIrst he should check madarsa and catholic schools in India.

10-31-2006, 01:59 AM

QUOTE(Mudy @ Oct 30 2006, 12:50 PM)FIrst he should check madarsa and catholic schools in India.
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Mudyji did you not know they are doing social service for which India is deeply indebted? Shivraj Patil says so.

10-31-2006, 03:19 AM

<img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/blink.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='blink.gif' /> And he is right; at least, cat is in bag. <img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/flex.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='flex.gif' />

11-01-2006, 01:43 AM

QUOTEArjun, heal thyself 
The Pioneer Edit Desk
Leave Saraswati Sishu Mandir alone
It is unlikely that Union Human Resource Development Minister Arjun Singh has heard of the adage, 'Physician, heal thyself'. In the event he has, he would be well-advised to look up its meaning because he needs to heal himself of the canker of toxic communalism from which he suffers. If he needs evidence of manifestation of this illness that has so severely warped his mind and jaundiced his vision, he can recall the comments he made at an NSUI function where he berated Saraswati Sishu Mandir schools and charged them with "injecting venom into society". As if that were not bad enough, he went on to add, "The nation should understand the damage done by these institutions." Really, Mr Singh? For, the facts speak otherwise. These schools, set up by individuals and organisations associated with the RSS, have taken education to the farthest corners of the country which the Government, most notably the Ministry headed by Mr Singh, has so abysmally failed to do. They are not driven by the profit motive, nor do they discriminate on grounds of religion or caste. They are affiliated to Government boards and they follow curriculum laid down by the commissars who decide what our children should learn. If they digress, which they admittedly do, from Government schools with absentee teachers and private schools that promote deracination, it is in instilling a deep sense of nationalism and national pride in children who study there. They do not teach their students to scoff at India's culture and civilisational history. Neither do they promote elitism. It is, therefore, understandable that Mr Singh should be unhappy with them: The emphasis on moral values and ethics at any Saraswati Sishu Mandir upsets him because these are concepts alien to his politics and the way he goes about his ministerial responsibilities.

It is laughable that Mr Singh, who is determined to destroy India's centres of excellence and does not believe in a merit-based society, should dare lift his finger at Saraswati Sishu Mandir schools where children are taught to value the power of merit and encouraged to become all-round achievers, irrespective of their background. A man whose single-point agenda is to doctor textbooks used by Government schools so that they are in tune with his perverse ideas deserves to be pitied for wanting to sanitise textbooks used by these schools. If Mr Singh truly wants to shut the sluice gates of anti-nationalism and communalism, he should begin with madarsas and seminaries that flourish as jihad factories. Instead, we have a situation where the Minister provides unlimited patronage to them; indeed, he certifies them as contributors to nation-building! This is as unacceptable as the abuse he has poured on Saraswati Sishu Mandir schools.Â

11-03-2006, 07:33 AM

Fatwas not in conflict with judicial system: Centre

Sunder · 11-03-2006, 12:19 PM

QUOTE(k.ram @ Nov 3 2006, 07:33 AM)Fatwas not in conflict with judicial system: Centre
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A Fatwa is never in conflict with the Judicial system. Nor is it a parallel. Allah-made sharia always supersedes the man-made Judicial system.

11-04-2006, 02:29 AM

QUOTEManmohan pulls rug from under Arjun's feet 
Pioneer.com
Santanu Banerjee | New DelhiÂ
By playing the minorities' backwardness card effectively at the annual conference on Thursday the State Minorities Commissions, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has pulled the rug from under HRD Minister Arjun Singh's feet.

By his repeated references about lack of educational access to the Muslims and his emphatic stress on bringing Muslim women to professional courses, observers feel that he actually underlined the failures of the HRD Ministry's major projects related to the educational welfare of the Muslims.

According to sources, what seems to have put the HRD Minister into deeper embarrassment was the Prime Minister's clubbing the failure of Muslims' access to education with other developmental schemes of the Government.

The PM's backhand compliment to Arjun Singh's has come at a time when the Sachar panel has given a decisive hint that Madrasa education was an unlikely solution for the educational backwardness of the minorities.

However, for the past two years, the HRD Ministry has been great thrust on Madarsa modernisation. According to sources, Arjun Singh now comes under political pressure with his existing schemes on minority education being dismissed as failure by none other than Prime Minister's Office.

The depth of Arjun Singh's embarrassment could be gauged by the chronology of measures that he took ever since he assumed the HRD Minister's post.

Singh launched a `detoxification campaign' to cleanse school curriculum from alleged tampering done by the last BJP-led NDA Government. For this exercise a survey was conducted on school textbooks which produced some thousand-page reports. Subsequently reports were placed before the CABE Committee last year for formulating a secular National Curriculum Framework. It was primarily done to appease the Muslims, who felt hurt by the alteration effected during the NDA rule.

After assuming the office, Arjun Singh set up National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions primarily to help the groups who wanted to set up minority educational institutions and had problem of getting no-objection certificates from the Local or the State Governments. The move came in for censure from the Parliamentary Standing Committee, which told HRD that it would not be advisable to overlook Local Governments on the issue.

Significantly, HRD kept out the unaided minority educational institutions of the 93rd Constitutional Amendment, which imposed quota regime on both aided and unaided private institutions.

Incidentally, when Aligarh Muslim University lost its minority status in an Allahabad High Court ruling last year, Arjun Singh directed the HRD to contest the case for AMU.

"These measures were meant to keep the minorities as an exclusive entity and not an inclusive entity," said a senior Government official. "Contrary to Singh's agenda, Manmohan on Thursday spoke for adopting measures which would integrate the Muslims into mainstream educational system," admitted a Left politician.

It is important to recall when a special Minority Ministry was created under another Congress veteran AR Antuly, Arjun Singh resisted any move to shift some of the sensitive minority-linked educational programmes under the ministry.

Interestingly, Prime Minister, who was hassled over Arjun Singh's acerbic criticism of economic reforms during the Planning Commission's finalisation of XIth Plan Approach paper, is seen as having exposed the failed outcome of Arjun Singh's endeavour to bring the Muslims in real terms into educational mainstream despite these measures.Â

11-06-2006, 08:20 PM

Cong to set up schools in tribal areasQUOTEThe Congress is getting ready to launch one more programme even before its previous one has taken off. To counter the efforts made by RSS-backed Shishu Mandir and Vidya Bharati schools to âinfluence young mindsâ and the BJPâs attempts to convert tribals to its communal agenda, the party plans to set up schools in tribal areas which would, besides spreading literacy, also propagate Gandhian values among them.

These schools would be set up to mark the centenary celebrations of Mahatma Gandhiâs satyagraha and would operate with the help of non governmental organisations which have been working among tribals .

The date and venue for setting up such schools are yet to be worked out. But the subcommittee, Congress president Sonia Gandhi set up to draw up programmes to mark 100 years of satyagraha has, in principle, decided that they will be set up in tribal areas.

In July 2003 at the partyâs Vichar Manthan Shivir in Shimla, Congress president Sonia Gandhi had announced the establishment of the Bapu Sadbhavana and Shiksha Trust, saying that the ideological battle has to begin in young and impressionable minds where the partyâs political opponents were planting seeds of âbigotry, intolerance and hate.ââ At the same time, the trust would instil pride in the countryâs heritage, she said.

Gandhian Nirmala Deshpande was appointed chairman of the trust within a month.Â Though the string of Gandhian institutions she heads were already engaged in the task of spreading Gandhian values and thoughts, it was only in August 2005 that well-wishers steppedÂ forward to offer land for the first school under the trust. The slow pace was attributed to the fact that the Congress had come to power at the Centre and the Human Resource Development Ministry was on a concerted drive to detoxify education of its communal strain.


Here is biggest proof, Sonia Gandhi's links with traitors and Christian missionaries.
She is using Gandhi name to exploit Indians. Govt is against Shishu school but ok to run schools by Deshpande and so-called goofy NGOs, And we know Deshpande's link with world wide missionaries, communist, Maoist, Marx and other varieties of anti-Indians.

What a shame.

11-14-2006, 10:56 PM

QUOTEDetoxification is history 
Pioneer.com
Leftists and assorted 'pinkos' who criticised the NDA for rewriting history are silent when UPA does the same to gain politically, says JS Rajput

The vindictive hype of 'detoxification', 'de-saffronisation' and 'de-Talibanisation' of education seems over. Those who fought against the removal of nine 'controversial, distorted and incorrect' passages from history textbooks in 2001 are in the process of removing 75 passages. History repeats itself. This unprecedented U-turn is not unexpected for those pronounced 'guilty' of 'communalising school education in India' like this writer.

Within 24 hours of the Haryana Chief Minister calling on Minister for Human Resource Development, CB-SE issued an advisory to all the affiliated schools not to use certain portions from the history books concerning Jats. It was that simple. The Jats, predominantly from Haryana, and also from Punjab and UP, had threatened to launch an agitation if biased, incorrect, and derogatory portions in history textbooks concerning them were not removed.

The Chief Minister saw the political import of the issue and acted fast. The Union Ministry had no alternative but to act. The CBSE Chairman, working under instructions, pontificated, "This portion has been excluded from classroom teaching and no questions will be set in any internal tests or board examination to evaluate students' understanding of the content of the various portions in future."

The deleted portion reported in the media reads: "After the death of Aurangzeb, they (the Jats) created disturbances all around Delhi. Though originally a peasant uprising, the Jat revolt, led by zamindars, soon became predatory. They plundered all and sundry... They took active part in court intrigues at Delhi, often changing sides to suit their own advantage." 

The UPA Government had launched a vigorous campaign against 'communalisation' and 'saffronisation' of education, consequent to removal of nine passages in 2001. Interestingly, the first shot was fired by Delhi Government, which removed a passage concerning Guru Tegh Bahadur. NCERT followed suit. In 2004-05, old history books were reprinted hurriedly, expunged passages duly protected, and distributed as 'reference books' to all the CBSE schools.

This was an unprecedented act in the history of school education in the name of 'secularism'. It was pointed out by NCERT in the Delhi High Court on November 7, 2006, that out of 75 paragraphs pointed out as objectionable and derogatory, 46 have already been removed, 21 shall be removed in the next year and the remaining eight in the academic year 2007-08. The much-hyped detoxification now stands mutilated.

None from the self-proclaimed number ones in 'national print media' or 'the fastest and the best' in the electronic media even cursorily recalled the removal of passages in 2001. CBSE could have honestly informed the people why these were brought back in 2004 and how these are being deleted again, as "passages in respect of which there is some reservation and objection". If the deletions in 2001 were communal, and bringing it back in 2004 was secular, then how does one describe the fresh removal in 2006?

The double standards of Marxist-Stalinists are well documented. They enjoy enormous clout in the present Government. It is now clear that the Ministry was overwhelmed by the Leftist propaganda in its initial days and said 'yes' to practically every item on their 'wish-list'. Can any one forget that in July 2004 they successfully got a book on Vedanta by Dr Karan Singh 'banned'? A book on Thirukkural, prepared for teachers, met with the same fate. They had shouted themselves hoarse that removal of paragraphs in 2001 was condemnable. Their quiet approval to the removal of passages from the much-loved history books in 2006 confirms their hypocrisy.

Mainstream print and electronic media, which brought out full-page supplements and conducted television debates on changes in history books in 2000-02, today appear to have forgotten all about distortion of history and the campaign launched against NCERT. The UPA's criticism of the educational changes initiated under the NDA was for its political survival. It reversed these in 2004. Today, UPA is doing what the NDA had done in 2000. In politics, they say, there are no permanent friends or foes. UP local bodies election results have sent signals to both UPA and NDA. Are new alignments in offing.

12-22-2006, 03:50 AM

QUOTEEducation in a royal mess 
Pioneer.com
JS Rajput
May 2004 will remain a unique instance of change of power in India. Those ousted from seats of power were shocked because of their overconfidence. Those suddenly thrust into power were equally stunned; they never expected the windfall. Once in power, the most visible face of the Government was projected in reservation, detoxification and "de-saffronisation".

Before May 2004, the term "hidden agenda" was in popular usage in the media as well as "secular" discourse. The "open agenda" that has followed gives top priority to minorities and "weaker sections". It appears India has recently become independent and those occupying the seats of power are in governance for the first time. They even ignore the fact that for 50 years, they have had the authority to ameliorate the condition of Muslims.

Within weeks of assuming power, a meeting on educating minorities was convened. All political parties except one were invited. That is how democracy functions these days. A National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions has come into existence. The signals are clear. So far none of the constitutional or regulatory bodies has done justice to the minority-managed institutions, it seems, hence the sudden realisation that another commission must be established. An attempt was made to convert Aligarh Muslim University into a minority institution. Alas, the judiciary continues to play spoilsport in such adventures.

Every Government is desperate to win over minorities for they can make the difference in elections. Hence the urge that something must be done for madarsas if Muslims are to be kept in good humour. In 2001, the Government wanted a Central Advisory Board for Madarsas as it was worried about funding to madarsas from Saudi Arabia and Gulf countries. The UPA Government is not worried on that count. With only four per cent Muslim children joining madarsas, the Human Resource Development Ministry has begun the 'exploratory process' of setting up a Central Board for Madarsas. Ninety-six per cent children of the community can wait but four per cent in madarsas must be put under the bureaucracy's care.

Promises are being made that madarsas must be modernised as the critical ingredient for the uplift of Muslims. Out of nearly one million schools, Government surveys indicate that about 50,000 are without buildings and over a lakh with a single room. Instead of looking after such aspects, the Government is determined to alienate the Muslim community that manages these madarsas. Several States have already established madarsa boards. How many of these have made their presence felt by professionally upgrading the quality of madarsas and the education being imparted there?

In the priority list of politicians, Muslim welfare is put just above that of the "Other Backward Classes". With great fanfare, 27 per cent reservation of seats for OBCs in all Central institutions was announced. It brought back memories of the days of Mr VP Singh as Prime Minister. If the HRD Ministry had had its way, it would have been implemented in one go. In came the Veerappa Moily Committee and institutions like IITs and IIMs were extended small mercies: "Do it in phases in three years. Do not worry about funds." To counter the backlash, the seats for the general category were not to be reduced. A couple of institutions that dared to object were silenced.

The entire issue was mismanaged and forced upon the institutions in a hurry. The Delhi University will have to accommodate an additional 20,000 students in the next academic year. The university, which is already short of 300 teachers, will have to recruit 2,300 more teachers in the next six months. The 17 Central universities will have to accommodate 50,000 extra students in the next academic year to implement the 27 per cent OBC quota. That requires an additional 6,600 teachers.

Even those who support reservation for weaker sections are disturbed by the fact that admissions are likely to be made without adequate infrastructure and academic resources. It will lead to a dilution in the quality of teaching and learning. Academic decisions need to be implemented after careful professional consideration.

Soon after the UPA came to power, the HRD Ministry began grabbing headlines, sacking individuals, appointing inquiry committees, banning books on subjects like Global Educational Change and Thirukkural, dissolving governing bodies, bringing in old loyal hands, so on and so forth. After 30 months, the "detoxification" drive stands demystified. As against nine paragraphs removed from the textbooks in 2000-01, Delhi High Court has been informed on November 7, 2006, that of the 75 paragraphs objected to in the court, 46 have already been removed, the remaining shall be removed over in the next two academic years.

Interestingly, when a paragraph about the Jat community was replaced in 2000, it was termed "communal" and hence brought back in 2004. In the last week of October 2006, the Chief Minister of the Jat heartland took up the issue with the HRD Ministry and within 24 hours the same paragraph was removed. Now, this is certainly a secular act!

One of the most provisions under Article 45 of the Directive Principles of State Policy is that the state shall provide "free and compulsory education to all children till they attain 14 years of age". A 1993 Supreme Court ruling says that the right to education is a Fundamental Right, flowing from the right to life under Article 21. The 86th Constitutional Amendment (2002) in Article 21(A) says, "The state shall provide free and compulsory education to all children of the age six to 14 years in such a way as the state may, by law, determine." Article 45 was modified, thus: "The state shall endeavour to provide early childhood care and education for all the children until they complete the age of six years."

All this was found inadequate and the UPA Government went on a publicity overdrive to announce that elementary education would become a functional Fundamental Right and, within practically no time, every child in the scheduled age group would get good quality education in a good school. An education cess was imposed and enhanced fund availability was made to look as a solution to all the ills. How many functionaries in the field of education, including teachers, are aware of the current position concerning "education as a Fundamental Right"? Why do millions of children continue to remain out of schools even today?

The core issue is the quality of elementary education in schools where children of weaker sections and minorities study. Nothing else should matter more for minorities and Other Backward Classes than providing them with good and functional schools. They deserve avenues in higher education on a priority basis, but only with adequate preparedness and assured quality in curriculum and its transaction.

02-10-2007, 09:05 AM

Experts snap at ASI outsourcing

QUOTE
The Archaeological Survey of India is drawing flak for its apparent unilateral decision to outsource the digitisation of its century-old archives of thousands of photographs to an American-funded organisation. The contract has been awarded to the American Institute of Indian Studies, Gurgaon, that is funded primarily by the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, the US State Department and other US government bodies.

....

Says Dr Dilip Chakrabarti, professor of South Asian archaeology, Cambridge: "This is incorrect from a national perspective, because ASI is a national concern and it is improper to hand over its resources to a foreign interest.
ASI should be headed by an Indian archaeologist who would understand, unlike a bureaucrat, the sensitivity of the issue and also the dangers of allowing unlimited access on what is where to the international antiquities market. The process should have been done in-house. It is like the National Archives allowing a foreign agency to take its documents outside its premises."

But ASI director-general C Babu Rajeev says, when asked about the logic in choosing AIIS, "I don't owe you an explanation!" Whatever happened to RTI?

02-10-2007, 02:39 PM

QUOTE(k.ram @ Feb 10 2007, 09:05 AM)Experts snap at ASI outsourcing<div class='quotetop'>QUOTEThe Archaeological Survey of India is drawing flak for its apparent unilateral decision to outsource the digitisation of its century-old archives of thousands of photographs to an American-funded organisation. The contract has been awarded to the American Institute of Indian Studies, Gurgaon, that is funded primarily by the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, the US State Department and other US government bodies. [right][snapback]64232[/snapback][/right]</div>I don't like this at all.

11-25-2007, 07:35 PM

Vedas and the NCERT
By Dr. Indulata Das

THE light of knowledge dawned in the world with the magnificent
literature is called as Vedas. Vedas are the expression of the most
sublime ideas of human mind and are replete with well wishes not for a
particular community or class, not even for the human only. They
solicit peace for the earth, the water, the air, the space, the
animals, and the even the plants along with the inner peace for the
human being:

Yajurveda 36.17

(Let there be peace in the sky, in the space, in the earth, in the
water, in the herbs, in the woods, in the gods, in the Brahman and
everywhere. Let there be peace and peace. Let the same peace be in me
too.)

An inundation of love and universal fraternity flows from the Vedas.

Eradication of hatred from human heart has been the essence of the
Vedic precept. A single stanza from the Isavsyopanisad is adequate to
reveal this

Vedic tenet:

Isavasyopanisad 6

(He, who discovers the presence of all the beings in his own self and
finds himself in all the beings, has no scope to hate.)

Vedas thus are the treasures of the whole world, placed high above the
trifling human divisions into sects or communities. Rightly the UNESCO
has honoured the Vedas with the glorious status of world heritage. The
senate of America paid apt respect to the grand literature by
commencing its session with the spiritual recital of Veda Mantras and
Gita.

It is India's supreme pride to be known as the emanating place of the
Vedas. Indian culture sans the Vedas is unthinkable. It is the
foremost consecrated duty of every Indian, therefore to be of service
to the motherland by preserving Vedas, the most precious treasure of
the land and spreading the precept of the same to every corner of the
world.

But this light of the land is an object of abomination for National
Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT), the leading,
responsible organization of India which is entrusted with the sacred
duty of protecting Indian culture and transmitting it to the next
generation through education. For the organization Vedas are
untouchable and the recitation of it is an abominable act of communalism.

Yes, the incident happened in NCERT and in the Project which is
launched to spread Sanskrit to the nook and corner of India. The
National Sanskrit Project (NSP), under the Dept. of Language of NCERT,
which is aimed at promoting Sanskrit throughout India, had organised a
three-day All India Sanskrit Conference on "Sanskrit Education through
E-learning" from 29th August to 31st August 07. The date was chosen to
coincide with the `Sanskrit Week' which started from 28th August 07.
The Sanskrit day falls on the Sravana Purnima and is observed for one
week and in many places for one full month.

Since the Vedas are the most valuable treasures of Sanskrit language,
the seminar was appropriately planned to start with Vedic chanting and
to end with Vedic prayer for peace.

But when the agenda of the seminar was known to Prof. Ramajanm Sharma,
HOD, Dept. of Language, his action was most unexpected. He did not
agree to the recitation of Vedas in the beginning and at the end of
the Conference. Even after repeated efforts from the NSP to convince
Prof. Sharma that Vedas are the valuable treasures of the country and
are the great heritage of the world and the chanting of Vedas at the
beginning is a mark of respect to the great heritage of India, Prof.
Sharma refused to approve the same. As a result no Vedic chanting
could take place in the Conference. The matter was reported to the
Joint Director and Director, NCERT but in vain.

The attitude of the NCERT towards the grand culture and heritage of
India is highly deplorable and objectionable. It is an official insult
to the great culture.

When insulting the national flag is a punishable offence by law why
should the insult of the Vedas not be regarded as an offence equally
or more serious? It is therefore necessary that appropriate action be
taken by the Ministry of HRD against those who are responsible for
this dishonour of Indian culture and take measures to prevent future
repetition of such undesirable act. The persons who openly disrespect
the culture of the land must not be rewarded with high posts in the
country.

(The writer can be contacted at indulatadas@ yahoo.co. in) When
insulting the national flag is a punishable offence by law why should
the insult of the Vedas not be regarded as an offence equally or more
serious

11-25-2007, 08:20 PM

<img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/mad.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='mad.gif' /> UK House of Commons disallows Hindu prayer

New York: The UK House of Commons has denied a request for reading the opening prayer by Rajan Zed, the Hindu chaplain who came to attention for reading the first Hindu prayer in the US Senate in July.

In a reply to Zed's request, Angus Sinclair, secretary to the speaker of the House of Commons, wrote, "Since 1660, and without exception, prayers have been conducted by the Church of England, a Protestant denomination with the Christian faith.

The Church of England is the established Church of the United Kingdom and any change to the prayers could only occur after much parliamentary debate which would precede consultation with the Sovereign, Queen Elizabeth the Second."

"Please understand that there is no compulsion for members of Parliament to attend prayers," Sinclair added.

In another communication on the issue, Pamela Carrington, Rector's Secretary, St Margaret's Church, Westminster Abbey, said, "Canon Wright (Canon Robert Wright, the Speaker's Chaplain) asked me to say that, regrettably, this is not possible - Prayers in the Chamber are always said by the Anglican Chaplain."

Based in Reno, Nevada, Zed has also recited Hindu prayers in California State Senate, Nevada State Senate and Nevada State Assembly this year. He is active in interfaith dialogue in the region.

Source: IANS On reading this article, you can place Sharma in proper category.

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