india

Updated: Sep 26, 2019 21:42 IST

Fresh language row has erupted in Tamil Nadu over inclusion of Sanskrit, Bhagwad Gita and Upanishads among elective subjects for engineering students in Chennai’s prestigious Anna University. While the Opposition has accused the Centre of attempting to saffronise education through AICTE, the university claimed the choice of elective subjects was with the college departments.

The fresh controversy was triggered by the decision of the university’s Information Science and Technology department to make Sanskrit--one of the languages prescribed by the AICTE-- mandatory

All India Committee of Technical Education’s (AICTE) claims it’s ‘Model Curriculum 2018’ has been drafted for holistic personality development with emphasis on Indian philosophical and intellectual orientation.

“Studying Gita will help in students developing their personality and achieving highest goals in his/her life,” says the programme manual. For the philosophy paper, ‘Bhagwad Gita’ by Swami Tapasyanada, ‘Upanishads’ by Swami Nikhilananda were among the texts recommended by AICTE.

Coming close on the heels of the protests over Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s remark about Hindi being a possible unifier, the latest incident provided fresh fodder for opposition attacks on the Centre.

The DMK again took the lead with party president MK Stalin demanding the intervention of Governor Banwarilal Purohit, chancellor of the varsity, and the state’s higher education department to withdraw the new courses.

“It is condemnable to attempt imposition of Sanskrit by making philosophy a compulsory paper in the syllabus of Anna University’s CEG (College of Engineering Guindy),” Stalin tweeted.

Marumalarchi DMK (MDMK) general secretary and Rajya Sabha MP Vaiko, too, questioned the relevance of Sanskrit religious texts for engineering students.

“The Centre is persisting with its efforts to impose Sanskrit-Hindi to saffronise every domain. The explanation that these are electives is unacceptable. This should be completely withdrawn,” he said.

The CPI(M) too flayed the decision for being anti-secular and called for its reversal.

“The curriculum and syllabus packed with teachings of a particular religion is unacceptable for the students who come from all faiths,” party state secretary K Balakrishnan said.

Former Anna University VC, Dr E Balagurusamy too questioned the move. “Though the AICTE has prescribed these course structures, Anna University has complete autonomy not to implement them. We need to apply our mind,” he said.

Reacting to the uproar, Varsity VC Dr MK Surappa denied imposing Sanskrit and issued a clarification to diffuse the situation.

“Students are free to opt for any three of the 12 electives offered in the Humanities, Social Sciences and Management Courses. As the subjects were mandated by AICTE, we could not remove them,” Surappa said before adding that a total of 32 subjects ranging from film appreciation to Sanskrit were available as electives as per AICTE recommended syllabus and the final choice was with the individual departments.