Three “crucial” Education Bills were passed in the Delhi Assembly on Tuesday even as the Opposition leaders walked out in protest. Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal also participated in the debate and made an appeal to the Central Government to give approval to the “crucial” Bills so they could be implemented in Delhi.
The three Bills include Delhi School Education (Amendment) Bill, 2015, Delhi School (Verification of Accounts and Refund of Excess Fee) Bill, 2015 and Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (Delhi Amendment) Bill, 2015.
Meanwhile, leader of Opposition Vijender Gupta labelled the Bills as “anti-people” and “brought on the behest of school owners”.
Interestingly, a vote-count was carried out in the Assembly during passage of the Bills even as the Opposition was absent from the House and no “nay” sound against the Bill could be heard during the voice vote. However, before the voting, sidelined AAP leader Pankaj Pushkar claimed that a whip was issued on Tuesday following which he withdrew his motion seeking the Bills to be sent to the select committee for reconsideration. During the vote count, he supported the Bills even though he had earlier clearly expressed his dissent to the proposed Bills.
Earlier, highlighting the drawbacks in the three Bills, leader of Opposition Vijender Gupta alleged that these Bills will give “legal freedom” to the school-owners to further commercialise education.
“If these Bills are passed, then no matter how much fee the private school charges, people will have no right to raise questions, the Government will have no right to take action and parents will have no right to go to courts,” Gupta said.
He asked the Government not to get the Bills passed with a “brute majority” but with consensus. “You don’t have just a simple majority or even an absolute majority in the Assembly. What you have is a brute majority. On any issue, there is no question of majority or minority in this House. Majority or minority won’t stop anything if the Government wants to pass any Bill. But passing a Bill with brute majority reflects arrogance. But passing it with consensus reflects inclusiveness and civility,” said Gupta.
Responding to Gupta, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said the people of Delhi have given Aam Aadmi Party a “brute majority” because they were fed up with the kind of politics that was prevalent in the times of Congress and the BJP.
“But as I said earlier also, we shouldn’t become arrogant… Our aim is not to pass Bills on the basis of a ‘brute majority’. Our aim is take everybody’s views - be it the ruling party MlAs or the Opposition or the common man of Delhi. Our aim is to pass them with consensus. But for that we all need to rise above petty politics and work together,” he said.
Kejriwal added that the three Education Bills reflect the Government’s intent and its willingness to improve the education system of Delhi as its topmost priority. “And removing corruption from the system is just one of the means to achieve that. Our bigger goal is to educate each and every child. But right now, our education system is so corrupt that one can’t run a school with honesty even if one wants to. And whose who run their schools by dishonest means, what will they teach our childrenIJ” said Kejriwal.
He further said by passing these three Bills, the Government is making an attempt to create an environment where those who want to run a school with honesty are able to do so. “And these Bills will also allow us to take action against those who don’t run their schools in an honest fashion,” said Kejriwal.
Talking about The Delhi School (Verification of Accounts and Refund of Excess Fee) Bill, the CM said once the verification of school accounts start, the school fee will automatically come down.
“I appeal to the Central Government to give approval to these crucial Bills so they could be implemented in Delhi at the earliest,” he appealed.