Rahul Gandhi: Modi Govt imposing RSS ideology on edu institutions

Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Saturday attacked the Modi government saying that "an ideology" is being imposed on the education system and assured the teachers that his party was with them in fighting the battle.

Interacting with college and university teachers from nearly 20 states at the Siri Fort Auditorium in Delhi as part of the party's outreach, Rahul said the Indian education system must be allowed to have its own voice.

Gandhi said there was space for private institutions but the guiding light of the foundation of superstructure has to be the public education system. He also expressed concern over the high fees of some educational institutions.

"I have come here mainly to tell you that you feel you are under attack, you are under threat, you feel that an ideology is being imposed on you. You feel that one syllabus has now suddenly become acceptable to every single education institution in India and you are not alone when you are fighting this battle," Gandhi said.

"This feeling is not only in your heart but in the heart of every single individual. It is in the heart of farmers, labourers, those running SMEs (small and medium enterprises). Everybody is saying that the country of over a billion people cannot possibly be run on a single idea," Rahul added.

Excerpts from Rahul Gandhi’s speech to professors at Siri Fort Auditorium in Delhi on Sept 22

I want to make a few things very clear right in the beginning. I am coming here not as a teacher but as a student who is coming to listen to what is in your heart and what you are feeling.

I have my views about the education system in India but I defer to your, the teachers, understanding of the education system of this country. I also defer to the understanding our students have of the education system because you are in the battlefield. So my position is more of somebody who is trying to understand from you what needs to be done and give you a sense of the broad outlines that I think are important for an education system in India.

A couple of non-negotiable’s as far as the Indian education system is concerned. The Indian teaching system must be allowed to have its own voice. We talk about our ancient traditions and we talk about the idea of a guru. A guru is someone who guides you. A guru is someone who gives you direction and a guru is someone who has to have ability to express himself. And I am not speaking as a Congress president, I am speaking as an Indian citizen who believes that the future of our country is guided by our teachers, who believes that if you don’t allow the teachers to express themselves, you cannot have an education system.

The second point is that if you want a education system that works, there has to be a feeling of harmony in that system, meaning a teacher has to have a sense that he has a future, a sense that he is giving something to the nation and the nation is giving him something in return. So the second non-negotiable for me is the idea that you can have teachers on contract, fire them at will. This will not give them a vision of a future.

There has to be space for private institutions, but the guiding light the foundation the super structure has to be public education system. The quality private institutions must look towards government institutions, and say that IIT is something we aspire to. It shouldn’t be the other way round, and for that the government has to put money into the system. So the government has to move from seeing education as just something that we do, to seeing education as a central part of India’s strategy for development.

Every government since independence has had successes, so I am not going to sit here and say you know these are the successes of Manmohan Singh ji and these are the successes of the UPA. You know the type of work that was done then and I don’t need to go into the detail. But I have come here mainly to tell you that I understand that you feel you are under attack, you feel under pressure, you feel under threat, you feel that an ideology is being imposed on you. You feel that one syllabus has now suddenly became acceptable to every single institution in India. I want you to understand and realise that you are not alone when you are fighting this battle. This feeling that you are getting is not only in your heart, it is in the heart of every single Indian person, it is in the heart of the farmers, it is in the heart of the labourers, it is in the heart of small and medium businesses. Everybody is saying that a country of over a billion people cannot possibly be run on one single idea.

You come from different parts of the country. You have different experiences, you face different challenges and your responses to those challenges and those experiences have to be different, they can’t be the same. And to me, that is India’s biggest strength, the fact that we allow our people to talk, that we allow our people to have discussions, that we allow the people to say haan jo mai kehraha hu, vo sahi hai aur mai adh jaunga. This is the strength and not the weakness of our country.

I am going to promise you one thing, that whatever you say to me is going to stay with me and whenever I am able to effect it, whenever I am able to influence it, what you are going to say to me is going to have a huge impact on what I am going to do. I want this to be an ongoing conversation. I want you to get the feeling that at least in the Congress party, when you say something the Congress party listens and responds sometimes. Congress party might say we don’t agree with you, and sometimes you may say you may not agree with us. That is fine but you must feel and we must feel that a conversation is taking place because you are a very, very important resource to the country. You work under extremely difficult circumstances. I don’t think anybody else in any other country works with the type of pressure you have. I don’t think many other teachers deal with the issues you deal with, so we owe you respect, honour and dignity and that is why I am here today.