Bengal asks state unis to ignore circular to telecast PM's speech to mark Vivekananda's Chicago address

In another confrontation where the state government has taken the Centre head on, Mamata Banerjee-led West Bengal government has directed all the state-run universities and colleges to ignore the University Grants Commission (UGC) directive to educational institutions for live televising Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s speech on September 11, marking the 125th anniversary of Swami Vivekananda’s speech at the World Parliament of Religions in Chicago.

“Without informing the state or taking concurrence of the state government concerned, the Centre cannot issue directives like this,” said state education minister Dr Partha Chatterjee at a press conference at Nabanna, the state secretariat. He said that it was a clear saffronisation of education. “This is unacceptable. College and university authorities contacted us upon receipt of the circular. I have told them that there was no requirement to the UGC directive which we feel is a step towards saffronisation of education,” Chatterjee added.

In a recent circular, the UGC had asked about 40,000 educational institutions for the live telecast of the speech. The state government had in August, instructed the school to ignore the Centre’s directive to celebrate Independence Day according to a set format issued by the Union Human Resource Development Ministry. Chatterjee had told then that there was no requirement to follow the format. “We don't need to learn a lesson of patriotism from the BJP. Educational institutions would celebrate Independence Day just the way they had been doing so far,” he had said.