HRD minister Smriti Irani meets Sangh leaders for 'improving' education

NEW DELHI: Human Resource Development Minister Smriti Irani met RSS leaders and representatives of six Sangh-affiliated organisations on Thursday, amid speculation that the government was being persuaded to pursue a revamp of the education system.

The meeting that lasted well over three hours at Madhya Pradesh Sadan is part of the government-organisational interface being institutionalised by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

It was attended by RSS leaders Ram Madhav, Krishna Gopal, Suresh Soni and members of Vidya Bharti, Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad, Rashtriya Saikshik Mahasangh, Bhartiya Shiksha Mandal, Sanskrit Bharti and Shiksha Bachao Andolan.

"This is the first of many meetings to come. The idea is to have better coordination with the government. We discussed the state of education in the country and gave our inputs on how the government could work towards improving education standards of the country,"said one of attendees, who did not wish to be identified.

"There are many people who have been working consistently in the field of education. We also wanted to suggest experts who could help the government in shaping its vision for education,"the above attendee added.

Representatives of the six RSS affiliates have met Irani separately on different occasions, but this was probably the first time they had a meeting together with the minister in presence of RSS leaders. The move set tongues wagging on saffronisation of education as some affiliates of the Sangh Parivar, such as Shiksha Bachao Andolan Samiti founder Dinanath Batra, have called for changes in the curriculum to better reflect ‘Indian values'. Baba Ramdev too recently proposed setting up of a new education board in the country to ‘Indianise' school education.

However, the meeting was downplayed by attendees. "It was an informal meeting and we did not have a specific agenda,"said an attendee on why the meeting stretched over three hours. Irani was not available for comment.