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Centre has no agenda to 'saffronise' education: Dr Joshi

The Centre has no agenda to 'saffronise' the education system and the apprehensions of the Communist parties in this regard are baseless, Human Resources Development Minister Murli Manohar Joshi has said.

Talking to the media in Raipur in Madhya Pradesh last night, Dr Joshi favoured a review of textbooks as he felt that they lacked an Indian perspective at present.

The minister said he had only suggested that textbooks should also mention of the contributions of great Indians, the country's achievements and shortcomings.

He said nobody else was expressing 'doubts' about his intentions except the Communists.

He asked why children should be deprived of the knowledge about the contributions of India's great men like Swami Dayanand, Swami Vivekananda and Mahatma Gandhi. ''If not in India where else should we teach about the Bhagwad Gita, Kalidas, Buddha, Mahatma Gandhi and Guru Granth Saheb ,'' he asked.

Stating that the Centre had no role in writing of textbooks, he said the same was being done by the respective state governments and scholars.

Hitting hard at the Communists, he said there was hardly anyone who talked about the Communist Manifesto written about a century ago, but Gita , which was written about 5100 years ago, still had its relevance, he said.

UNI

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