Common ground: Security issues, education, Ganga discussed as Oppn castigates meet
In its bid to make education available to all, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) has underlined concerns on it getting too costly because of increased privatisation and paucity of material for higher education in regional languages.
These issues figured on the second day of the meeting of the RSS and its affiliates during a discussion on education in the presence of human resource development minister Smriti Irani.
Besides education, which has been on the Sangh's radar, security related issues like tackling terror, ceasefire violations in Jammu and Kashmir, which is now under PDP-BJP rule, and China border talks came up at the RSS-BJP meeting. Security concerns have also been high on the RSS agenda.
The meeting has come under Opposition fire with the Congress saying the BJP was dancing to the RSS tune. However, an RSS leader said these meetings were held routinely and the only difference now was that some BJP leaders had become ministers, which has brought it under the media glare.
The RSS concerns are aimed at the aam admi, while policy-making is in the government's domain, the leader said.
According to sources, there was a view in the RSS that there was dearth of higher education material in regional languages, particularly in science subjects. The HRD ministry in the Modi regime has been focusing on promoting Indian languages. The language committee of the HRD ministry is also of the view that to promote Indian language, study material and teaching faculty should be made available in all possible regional languages.
The committee is expected to submit its report by the end of this year.
The RSS had also conveyed to the government to keep a check on the fee structure of private education institutes to prevent education from getting too costly. At present, the government has no control over
the such institutions.
Human resource development ministry has already initiated the process of drafting a policy to bring private education institution under its control. The institutions will soon be asked to submit their list of
assets and details of fee structure to the ministry.
The "Namami Gange" and promoting festivals along the river were also discussed, sources said. The HRD ministry through the National Book Trust will be preparing literature on Ganga while the ministry of tourism will be promoting and organising festivals along the river.
Meanwhile Congress leader Manish Tewari said "BJP leadership is dancing to the tune of the RSS. This meeting has exposed that."
Rejecting the charge, BJP leader Ram Madhav said, "All constituent members of Sangh Parivar have been traditionally meeting on issues of national importance for years. There nothing new in it," he said.
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