Hundreds of citizens staged a demonstration at Gandhiji Statue in Hazratganj, Lucknow, to oppose rapid saffronisation of education in India and call for immediate dismissal of Prof GC Tripathi, Vice Chancellor of Banaras Hindu University (BHU).
Associated with Rashtriya Swyamsewak Sangh (RSS) Prof GC Tripathi, Vice Chancellor of BHU, was made the Chairman of Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)’s Board of Governors (BoG) by Minister of Human Resources Development, Government of India, bypassing the panel of five names recommended by a resolution of BoG. It was this BoG chaired by him that made baseless allegations against Gandhian socialist and Magsaysay Awardee Dr Sandeep Pandey and terminated his teaching contract with Chemical Engineering department of IIT-BHU.
Not only communalisation of education is going on unabated, but quality of education is also being seriously jeopardized. People with less ability and competence but affiliated with organisations like RSS are getting appointed at key positions in educational institutions. Indian universities are already in a bad shape and communalisation is only going to make their plight even worse. RSS does not want to build a society where people may think rationally with reason, rather it wants the society to recede back and keep engaged in meaningless issues like of Mandir-Masjid or ‘cow’ and not pay attention to important issues like poverty, unemployment, inequality, discrimination among others.
Saffronisation of education has been rising consistently, and termination of teaching contract of Dr Sandeep Pandey is just another example of it. Even what we should eat or not eat or what dresses a girl or a woman should be allowed to wear are getting tainted with communal strokes. Those who believe in a just social order are deeply concerned on these anti-people trends but neither central nor state governments are appearing to take any serious note of these brewing serious problems.
Communalisation is deeply entrenched with privatisation and corporatisation of education, as well as with patriarchy.
We call upon central government and President of India who is the ‘Visitor’ to BHU, to immediately dismiss VC BHU Prof GC Tripathi and other RSS associated people who have been appointed at key positions in education sector in this process of communalisation. It is important to de-communalize education and protect the sanctity of these educational institutions which help shape our young for a better tomorrow.
Humsafar – support centre for women; Rihai Manch; Vanangana; Socialist Mazdoor Sangathan; Sangteen Mazdoor Kisan Sangathan; Sanatkada; MASVAW; Health Watch Forum; Yuva Tarang; Asha Parivar; National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM); Socialist Party (India)
Phone: 98394-22521 (Chunnilalji),
