Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Saturday accused the RSS and the Modi dispensation of snatching the autonomy of educational institutions and imposing a centralised thought on them. “I can make one promise to you. Centralisation of education has happened, and your autonomy has been taken away. We will reverse the situation cent per cent,” he told the gathering of professors, at the national capital on Saturday. “As soon as the Congress party comes, your autonomy, independence, freedom of thought will be restored,” he said.
Gandhi said the first non-negotiable for him was that the teaching system must be allowed to have its own voice and express its own opinion. He said the teachers should be assured of a stable future. He also said that students and their families having to deal with spiralling costs of higher education was unacceptable.
“I understand that you feel that you are under attack. I understand that you feel that you are under pressure, under threat, and that an ideology is being imposed on you. One syllabus suddenly becomes institutionalised. You are not alone when you are fighting this battle,” Gandhi said, adding this feeling was widespread and prevalent in other sections of the society.
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The Congress leader referred to the Vyapam scam to claim that the RSS and the BJP not only wanted to capture the institutions, but also monetise them. “As Amit Shah says, and this is the RSS vision of India, that India is 'sone ki chidiya'. It is a product that has to be monetised.”
During the course of close to a two-hour-long interaction, Gandhi assured that if his party came to power, the budget for education would be scaled up to six per cent, as has been recommended by experts.
In a scathing criticism of RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat's recent outreach efforts, Rahul Gandhi said the former's statement that the RSS will organise the whole nation smacks of arrogance, and that this “fantasy” will be smashed in the next couple of months.
Referring to the RSS' recent three-day outreach programme, Gandhi said, “Mohan Bhagwat said we are going to organise the whole nation. Who are you to organise the whole nation, Mr Bhagwat? The nation will organise itself. Are you some god that you are going to organise a nation of 1.3 billion people? Can't you understand how arrogant you are? It is fantasy. It will be smashed in the next couple of months.”
Gandhi, who was interacting with academics who came from different parts of the country, accused the RSS of trying to take over all institutions, including the educational institutions. “The Supreme Court, the Election Commission, all these are being systematically captured. The idea is that there should be no institution where its tentacles have not spread,” he said.
The Congress President claimed that a former chief of the Special Protection Group, who he said was brought in from Gujarat by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, told him that the RSS had given him a list of people that it wanted to be put under SPG protection. He further claimed that he was divested of the charge when he refused. “He said 'I have got a list of people that the RSS wants to put under SPG care. I refused. That is why I am being sent home',” Gandhi said.
