The Hindu : Kerala / Thiruvananthapuram News : UDF decries government’s attitude towards fast

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jul 15, 2008
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

Kerala

Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram

UDF decries government’s attitude towards fast

Special Correspondent

Stages walkout accusing government of ‘prejudiced’ approach

M.A. Baby says fast is over a non-issue
Urges Opposition to wait for panel report

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Opposition United Democratic Front (UDF) members walked out of the Assembly during zero hour on Monday to register their protest against the government’s ‘insensitive’ attitude towards the six-day-old indefinite fast by Youth Congress State president T. Siddique before the Secretariat seeking, among other things, withdrawal of the controversial Class VII social science textbook.

The Opposition described the government stand on the textbook controversy ‘prejudiced’ and alleged that the expert committee constituted to look into the controversial textbook was meant only to give a clean chit to it. Mr. Siddique’s fast, the Opposition members pointed out, was also to seek cancellation of the recruitment of assistants at Kerala University which was marked by massive irregularities. Education Minister M.A. Baby assured them that the government would go by the recommendation of the expert committee in the textbook row and by the verdict of the Lok Ayukta in the controversial recruitment of assistants, but to no avail.

Baby’s contentions

Opposing the adjournment motion sought to be moved by V.D. Satheesan (Cong.), the Education Minister said the Youth Congress leader’s fast was over a non-issue. Several prominent persons, including UDF leaders K.R. Gouri and M.V. Raghavan and writers M.T. Vasudevan Nair and O.N.V. Kurup, had endorsed the book. Only the Inter-Church Council and the NSS had decided not to cooperate with the expert committee. His information was that the committee would meet on Monday and Tuesday. The government would go by the committee’s recommendations, he said.

Mr. Baby came down heavily on the committee constituted by the UDF to look into the book and said its chairman M.G.S. Narayanan was one who had endorsed the Sangh Parivar agenda in education. On the contrary, the committee constituted by the government had three persons who were also members on committees on education constituted by the United Progressive Alliance government, he added.

UDF’s point of view

Seeking leave for the adjournment motion, V.D. Satheesan (Congress) said the Opposition’s objections to the textbook was not only about its content but also about its quality and the subtle attempt by the government to inject anti-Congress thinking in the minds of Class VII students. Mr. Siddique’s fast was also intended to highlight the massive irregularities in the recruitment of assistants by Kerala University where persons who had secured high ranks in the written examination were eliminated to accommodate others who had not even secured the cut-off mark in the written test. Instead of holding talks to bring the fast to an end, the Education Minister was ridiculing it, he said.

Mr. Baby responded that though Kerala University was an autonomous institution, the government would take stern action if the Lok Ayukta found irregularities in the recruitment. He termed the Opposition argument that the government was averse to a dialogue to bring the stir to an end unfounded. It was the UDF which was shifting the goalpost every now and then. It should be ready to wait till at least the expert committee’s recommendations came for further dialogue on the subject. NCERT textbooks had portions critical of the Emergency and even the infamous Rajan case was mentioned in it. One could only think with shudder what would have been the response if the same textbook was taught in Kerala, he said.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Kerala

News Update

Stories in this Section