Congress leader assails govt over IIT autonomy

RANCHI: Senior Congress leader Mohan Prakash on Sunday launched a sharp attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi over government interference with the autonomy of higher education institutions like IITs and the qualification of Union HRD minister Smiriti Irani, predicting a dimmer future for the younger generation because “Irani is underqualified and gives directives bordering on complete illiteracy”.
He also said Irani does not respect intellectual excellence and alleged that her excessive interference has forced Nobel laureate and Nalanda University’s vice-chancellor Amartya Sen, noted nuclear scientist and chairman of the board of governors of IIT Bombay, Anil Kakodkar and IIT-Delhi director Raghunath Shevgaonkar to resign.
“The HRD minister has dubious degrees and conflicting educational qualifications. The integrity of the country’s educational structure cannot be safe in such hands,” Prakash said.
He was talking at a press conference in Ranchi as part of a week-long offensive that Congress has launched against the Modi government’s first anniversary. The offensive was launched on May 21. As part of the offensive, each day the party will get a new speaker to find faults with the government.
The Congress leader accused Irani of violating the autonomy of the University Grants Commission (UGC). “She has taken arbitrary and abrupt decisions depending entirely on well-planted bureaucratic interests and the RSS,” he said. He claimed that the HRD ministry had moved against Delhi University (DU) vice chancellor Dinesh Singh with the aim to create vacancies for Sangh Parivar loyalists.
“The government has appointed underqualified Sangh Parivar loyalists as heads of premier institutions of excellence. Former RSS mouthpiece Panchjanya editor Baldev Sharma has been appointed chairman of the National Book Trust, one RSS man Inder Mohan Kapahi was appointed UGC member while another Y Sudarshan Rao has been appointed as chairperson of Indian Council for Historical Research, among other high-profile appointments,” he said.
The Congress leader said Modi and Irani do not understand that masters of Sangh Parivar and poor qualification of the HRD minister have induced institutional paralysis.
“The BJP government has slashed educational budget by Rs 14,088 crore. The government has also abolished the schemes of granting central assistance for setting up 60,000 model schools at block-level in the country,” he said.