Defending the state government’s decision to recommend the inclusion of RSS founder Keshav Baliram Hedgewar’s biography in all college libraries, Rajasthan Higher Education Minister Kali Charan Saraf said students need to read about other leaders besides Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru.
“The Congress wants students to read about only Mahatma Gandhi and Nehru. For them, these are the only national leaders. That is why people have reduced them to a small opposition,” he told The Sunday Express.
[related-post]
Saraf said the government would also recommend biographies of other leaders. “We will also get biographies of other leaders like Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Chandrashekhar Azad and Subhash Chandra Bose in libraries of government colleges. Students need to read and learn more about these leaders,” he said.
Subscriber Only Stories
Saraf said Hedgewar’s biography, Aadhunik Bharat ke Nirmata Dr Keshav Baliram Hedgewar, had nothing to do with RSS ideology. “How is it propagating the ideology of the RSS? Is it asking people to go to RSS shakhas? It is simply the life story of a nationalist leader who contributed greatly to the freedom struggle and in nation building,” he said.
Saraf said during its previous term too, the BJP government had inclusion of Bhagat Singh’s prison diary in college libraries.
Meanwhile, the Congress accused the state government of attempting to “saffronise” education.
“By asking government colleges to stock up on Hedgewar’s biography, the BJP is trying to saffronise education. There should be no place for such propaganda driven content in modern secular education,” said Rajasthan PCC spokesperson Archana Sharma.