The zero draft of the new education policy is ready. It is aimed at bringing an education revolution in the country between 2020 and 2040 by putting emphasis on creating good human beings through learning. This is what Union Minister for Human Resource and Development (HRD) Prakash Javadekar today said at the Mail Today Education Summit in New Delhi.

Javadekar dismissed the allegations that the Narendra Modi government was trying to saffronise education by focusing on its Hindutva ideology and rewriting history textbooks. Responding to the charge, Javadekar said, all religions would be part of the new education policy.

Will it include Hindutva philosophy?

"All religions...Hindutva is not bad...All religions teach brotherhood. All religions teach tolerance. India is proud to have a civilization...We welcomed all religions. This is the only land which never tries to convert anyone from any religion," Javadekar said.

"Human values needs to be taught," Javadekar said adding, "We have to tell about human values (in textbooks) based on real history, real geography that builds a good human being."

On the question of rewriting history to espouse the ideology of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), Javadekar said, "We have not rewritten a single chapter in the last four years."

"We don't need to go to textbook to expand our philosophy. We do that by directly going to people and having a direct conversation with them. We don't have to use textbook syllabus to spread our philosophy," he said.

Are Sangh Parivar ideologues being appointed as heads of academic institutions?

"We have appointed very genuine people," Prakash Javadekar asserted.

"Appointments are made by committees of experts and in my meeting with the committee, I tell them that there is no recommendation from my side or so there is no recommendation from anybody. Let us evaluate the person with vision and leadership," he said.

"Everybody writes their remark (in the meeting of experts for appointment). For IIT director, we sat for two days. Sixty people were interviewed. Then I asked Dewang Khakhar of IIT Bombay and told him, read your list of 10. Out of 10, nine were common in the list of all the six evaluators," Javadekar said.

"We decide it on merit. We don't dictate and that is the difference. The Modi government is based on merit," he said.