PM Narendra Modi’s plan to address children kicks up a political storm

NEW DELHI: PM Narendra Modi’s plan to make a televised address to schoolchildren across the country on Teacher’s Day kicked up a political storm on Monday, with West Bengal government refusing to make arrangements for the event even as Union Human Resource Development Minister Smriti Irani clarified that participation of students in the interaction was voluntary.

Maharashtra, too, appeared to be rethinking its stand on the issue, although no one was willing to discuss it on record. The Mamata Banerjee-led West Bengal government made it clear that it will not install television sets in about 50,000 government and sponsored schools to enable the students to listen to the prime minister because of paucity of funds and time.

It will instead hold a separate function that will be addressed by Banerjee. The HRD Ministry had recently asked all state governments to make arrangements for children to watch Modi’s live address in schools.

The Central Board of Secondary Education ( CBSE), which sent out the circular, has directed schools to make arrangements for the event between 2.30 pm and 5 pm on September 5. The circular kicked up a controversy as it was seen as a diktat by state governments and schools. A circular sent by the directorate of education of Delhi said that any laxity in the arrangements would be viewed seriously.

Since schools usually close by afternoon, a section of school principals in Delhi questioned the timing of the Modi-student interaction. The Congress criticised the move, saying that this amounts “to misusing the state machinery” in order to “indoctrinate the schoolchildren” through the ruling establishment’s “political propaganda”.

“Never a government, or a PM, has made such blatant effort by passing dictate to make official arrangement so that Modi could address the schoolchildren across India....Why should the schoolchildren of second or third classes be made to compulsorily listen to the speech of the prime minister as at their age it is beyond them to comprehend the kind of speeches the PM makes?” said Congress spokesman Abhishek Singhvi. H

owever, Irani defended the government, saying, “This particular activity is voluntary in nature. If it is being politicised, then I would say it is regrettable.” She added, “If the prime minister of a free India does not have the freedom to interact with students, then it is ridiculous.”