The Opposition on Tuesday continued its protests, inside and outside Parliament, against the Government’s reported diktat for “opening of schools on Christmas Day”. The Government, however, reiterated that there was no such move.
While the left parties blamed HRD Minister Smriti Irani for “untruthful” statements demanding Prime Minister’s statement in Parliament, in the lok Sabha KC Venugopal (Congress) flaunted “circulars” which, he said, stated that CBSE schools will also hold activities to observe ‘Good Governance Day’ on December 25 to mark former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s birthday. Government’s denial on Monday in the House was not factual, he said.
The Government had said it was only an online competition but official documents in his possession said it was online and off-line and CBSE will also participate in them, he said. Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Rajiv Pratap Rudy said these offline activities were confined to Navodaya schools which are 100 per cent residential. “The Government has no such intention whatsoever to open schools on Christmas,” he said.
Rudy also cited a 1987 direction, which said all festivals should be celebrated in Navodaya Vidyalayas and competitions and such events be held on campus as students cannot be permitted to go home. The Congress members raised some objection, which was not permitted by Speaker Sumitra Mahajan.
For its part, the CPI(M) Politburo said the HRD Minister made “untruthful” statements and demanded Prime Minister Narendra Modi to answer to Parliament on the matter. “The Minister has willfully tried to conceal the facts. This is an addition to the wholly unconstitutional effort to push a divisive agenda on a day which is a holiday celebrated by the Christian community as a holy day,” the party Politburo said in a statement.
The left parties demanded “accountability” of Irani and “strongly condemned the Modi Government’s untruthful statements regarding the circular”, saying the Prime Minister “should inform the nation through Parliament what action he intends to take against the Minister”.
Separately at a press conference, senior CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury read out a circular signed by an Additional Secretary of the Ministry, instructing all technical institutions and the AICTE to organise seminars and elocution contests on December 25 and send compliance reports that day.
He said he had authenticated the circular in the Rajya Sabha after leader of the House Arun Jaitley had “challenged” him to do so on Monday. Terming the move as “outrageous”, he said it was a “direct attack” on the religious rights of the Christian minority and aimed at creating tension.
“like Pakistan observes December 25 as Mohammed Ali Jinnah’s birthday and not as Christmas, India will now celebrate the day as Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s birthday. This is what India’s secular democratic tradition is being reduced in to,” Yechury said, adding “Hindu communalism and Muslim fundamentalism go hand in hand, feeding each other.”