17:45
West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari on Thursday warned schools that financial aid and other government support would be stopped if the mandatory singing of the full version of Vande Mataram during school prayers was not strictly followed.
Addressing the annual programme of Vivekananda Vidya Bharati Vikas Parishad, an RSS-affiliated organisation, at Ramakrishna Mission in Kolkata's Golpark, Adhikari alleged that the state's education system had been "brought to the brink of destruction" under successive governments in the past.
He said the current BJP dispensation was undertaking reforms to restore Indian culture, traditions and nationalist values in school education.
"A few people had objected to singing the complete rendition of Vande Mataram. I told them that government aid would stop. Then they budged, but only partially. They stood up, but did not move lips. Then I told them that lips must move as well," the CM said, sporting a smile.
Claiming that English-language education was curtailed during the Left Front regime while the TMC era had "distorted school curricula through appeasement politics", Adhikari said words such as 'maa', 'jal' and 'akash' in school curricula were deliberately replaced with 'amma', 'pani' and 'asmaan', respectively.
The "subtle changes", he claimed, stood in contrast to the pedagogic ideas of stalwarts like Iswar Chandra Vidyasagar and Swami Vivekananda.
Adhikari also accused the previous government of committing the "unforgivable crime" of banning the National Cadet Corps (NCC) in educational institutions.
