Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday claimed that the teachers raised the issue of the Kannada language and culture being “under attack”.
He said that “our education system is under systematic attack from adverse ideological forces & that attack has reached now our curriculum.”
The Former Congress President said that he interacted with the teachers and students, who told him their concerns.
“I spoke to the teachers and students. The teachers said why government schools are being neglected. Why our culture, our ‘Kannada’ language is under attack? Why the glory of the history of Karnataka is being erased from textbooks Why our culture and history is being attacked and damaged?” Rahul said.
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He said that the new NEP 2020 had been specially designed to undo everything that has been done in past 75 years. He continued to add that Communalisation, Centralisation & Commercialisation were the only agendas behind these monumental changes effected by the State & Central Governments.
Wayanad MP suspected that there were many deliberate & designed efforts to destabilize the education system and subvert the Constitution through these drastic measures.
The MP from Wayanad is currently leading Bharat Jodo Yatra- the 3,500-km march from Kanyakumari to Kashmir, covering as many as 12 states. The Yatra started from Kanyakumari and will end in Kashmir the next year by covering 25 km every day.
Poornima, a Government School Teacher opined that the reason today for Government Schools to fall behind on success metrics was not because private schools were better than them, but because the government in itself is least bothered to provide even basic infrastructure facilities to its own facilities.
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She said that shortage of teachers and lack of basic infrastructure in schools were the two biggest issues plaguing the government education system in Karnataka.
Rahul Gandhi replied to her and said that, he spoke to a few government school children in English, but they were unable to speak. He asked her what she thought about the language barrier.
Poornima responded that it was important for students to learn English and Hindi because for something as simply as bank application, is available only in Hindi & English even in the most rural parts of the state.
Rahul Gandhi expressed surprise that Bank Applications weren’t anymore available in Kannada in Karnataka.
The march is aimed to cover as many as 12 states in five months. It entered its Karnataka leg on September 30. It will be in Karnataka for 21 days before moving north.
According to Congress, the ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ is being held to combat the divisive politics of the BJP-led Centre and to awaken the people of the country to the dangers of economic inequalities, social polarisation and political centralisation.
Notably, all the party MPs, leaders and workers along with Rahul Gandhi are staying in containers. Sleeping beds, toilets and ACs are also installed in some of the containers. During the journey, the temperature and environment will differ in many areas.
Congress MP Mallikarjun Kharge said that Rahul Gandhi clearly stated that there was no intention of making Hindi alone the national language and threatening the identity of your language (Kannada).”
The arrangements have been made keeping in view the intense heat and humidity with the change of places.
The Congress suffered a debacle in the assembly polls held earlier this year and the Yatra is seen as an attempt to rally the party rank and file for the upcoming electoral battles.
