Rejecting allegations of Opposition MPs on Sangh Parivar’s influence and saffronisation of education, Union Human Resource Development Minister Smriti Irani on Monday said the Centre was bound to act by the Constitution and accused people from certain sections of unleashing malicious propaganda against her.
Replying to the debate on Demands for Grants for the HRD Ministry in the lok Sabha, which mostly witnessed arguments and counter-arguments with MPs, Irani made a strong defence for scrapping FYUP and asking IITs to seek her Ministry’s advise on MoUs.
In her reply, which lasted more than 50 minutes, she rejected charges against her by the Opposition MPs for interfering in academic appointments and accused the UPA Government’s tenure for favourtism in such appointments.
The HRD Minister and TMC MPs were engaged in a verbal duel on matters related to the affairs of Visva-Bharati. In a combative mood, she cornered TMC MP Sugata Bose with facts and figures, after he questioned her style functioning in the Ministry.
Irani said that the spending in education during the Narendra Modi Government is more than the previous UPA regime. The Minister attacked the Opposition for accusing her of appointing Hindutva scholars to academic bodies, saying many of them are associated with the left and Congress as well.
Irani singled out TMC MP Sugata Bose, drawing sharp reaction from his party members who demanded an apology which was outrightly rejected by her. Taking on Bose and Congress MP Sushmita Dev for their claims of appointing people with “saffron” ideology to the Indian Council of Historical Research (ICHR), she said scholars like Purabi Roy, associated with CPI, and Sacchidananda Sahai, a close associate of Congress leader Santosh Mohan Dev (father of Sushmita Dev), too were appointed to the body.
She strongly defended her decision to intervene in Delhi University’s Four-Year Undergraduate Programme (FYUP). “This was not approved by the President. The programme would have produced 77,000 students each year with degrees without any worth. Had they been on the streets, were we ready to meet that situationIJ If I have protected their future, why are they hurtIJ” she asked, taking a dig at leaders of some Opposition parties.
Responding to charges that Government was interfering with MoUs being signed by institutions like IITs, she wondered why the UPA Government was silent when the Delhi IIT had signed an agreement to open a campus in Mauritius using “taxpayers’ money.” She only went by the law passed by Parliament, she said. Trinamool Congress members vehemently protested Irani’s jibes at Bose and demanded that she express regret for pointing her finger at him during her reply which, TMC leader Saugata Roy said, was “just not acceptable”. Irani rejected the demand and said “aspersions were made, doubts cast and snide remarks” made against her and “there is no question of an apology”.
Terming her reply as “combative and aggressive”, Roy said it was due to the pressure she was facing within her party. Bose said he was not treated in such a manner earlier and added that he in his speech had only pointed out that the HRD Ministry should have shown a “modicum of respect” for noted experts, referring to the reported resignation of nuclear scientist Anil Kakodkar as the head of Board of Governors of IIT Mumbai. He was reportedly persuaded to stay on. She accused Bose, a well-known historian, of “misleading” the House by referring to Kakodkar’s resignation saying he was still working. Responding to the demands of several members, she said she will try to increase Kendriya Vidyalaya admission “coupons” for MPs from the present six to ten.