Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Sunday said the RSS and Prime Minister Narendra Modi was using education as an ideological weapon and commercial commodity instead of viewing it as a tool to empower citizens.
Interacting with professors in Tamil Nadu’s Tirunelveli, Rahul said: “The RSS uses education as an ideological tool. We believe education is a weapon of empowerment of the people.”
He also said that the new education policy was being used as an ideological weapon to communalise people and impose centralisation.
Stressing that education plays a critical role in nation-building, the Congress leader said: “The State has an important role in providing quality education to the people across the country, particularly the poor and deprived sections
of the society. I don’t believe education is a financial commodity. I don’t believe you should be able to buy education. Education should be available to everybody.”
Responding to questions, he added: “It is the duty of the government to provide quality education and health care to everybody. This government sees everything as a financial commodity — farming, education, health care.
“If you have money, you can get anything. If you don’t have money, you get nothing. There is space and role for business. Absolutely. But business cannot dominate education, health care. A large part of education should be free, accessible to all.”
Rahul, who is on a three-day tour of Tamil Nadu, also dwelt on his pet theme of how the entire agriculture trade was being handed over to crony capitalists. He later tweeted: “The Government of India has turned noble professions like farming, education & health care into financial commodities for the benefit of a few cronies.”
He said that “access and excellence” were not possible with centralisation and corporatisation of the education system.
Responding to a professor who wanted to know how to educate young minds to remove religion from politics, the former Congress president said: “I don’t think you necessarily want to remove religion from the discourse. Let all religions be part of the discourse.
“You want fair play. If somebody believes in a religious idea, I don’t think you can tell him — you can’t talk about it. I think all ideas need to be competing without hatred, without anger. I don’t see a problem in a conversation taking place.”
Rahul added: “The problem is when you tell people you can’t open your mouth because you are from a certain religion. Or, you can’t express your ideas because you are from a certain religion. But a healthy democracy should be confident enough to speak on anything. It shouldn’t be that we don’t have the courage to speak the truth.
“The problem is that the government of India doesn’t want to allow people to speak. This government says they represent Hinduism. A lot of ideas they espouse have nothing to do with Hinduism. Nowhere in Hinduism does it say insult people, beat people, kill people. But they do it.”
Hinting that the RSS-BJP misused and misinterpreted religion only to grab power and implement its agenda, he said: “If you want to have a discussion on the true principles of religion, it is very simple. All of them say the same thing — Hinduism, Christianity, Islam — treat the other person with respect, with love, with affection. Religion doesn’t say hate, kill. The whole game is to steal. Do whatever you have to do to take away what belongs to the other. Take people’s money and give it to big businesses.”
Asked about his vision for imparting knowledge in a practical manner as is done in the West, Rahul said: “I would give freedom to teachers and students. Teachers are creative people, I will let them use that creativity. The students should have the freedom to question, to challenge ideas. The government should be confident enough to let ideas flourish. This government doesn’t give that freedom.
“But we defeated the British. Who is Modi in comparison to the British power? We will send Modi back to Nagpur (the RSS headquarters). But we will do it without hate, without anger.”
