india

Updated: Jun 06, 2019 10:07 IST

The Rajasthan’s Congress government has dropped RSS ideologue Deendayal Upadhyay’s name from a scholarship test for the secondary school students, triggering a fresh controversy.

The Gehlot government’s move came close on the heels of one describing RSS ideologue Vinayak Damodar Savarkar as ‘Son of Portugal’ in the social science book for class 10.

The state government dropped Upadhyay’s name from the scholarship test, arguing that the previous BJP government had named the test after the RSS ideologue without any reason. “The former BJP government had added the name of Deendayal Upadhyay with the talent search test for no reasons, therefore the name has now been dropped,” said state Education Minister Govind Singh Dotasara.

The test is conducted for students of class 10th and 12th and the successful ones in the test are awarded scholarships by the Rajasthan Secondary Education Department.

The move prompted the state’s former education minister Vasudev Devnani to accuse the government of targeting RSS ideologues repeatedly.

“There are many schemes and programmes in names of various Congress leaders but removing the name of Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay from the scholarship test reflects the narrow-mindedness of the Congress government,” said Devnani.

He said the Congress was taking decisions like removing names of RSS ideologues from various programmes and revising the curriculum of school text books out of sheer “humiliating rout” in the state in the recent Lok Sabha elections.

“Pandit Deendayal Uadhyay is among the great personalities whose contribution to democracy will continue to impact future generations. The government’s decision is absurd and uncalled for,” he said. Devnani had also cornered the state government earlier for dubbing Veer Savarkar as ‘Son of Portugal’ in class 10th social science text book, saying that even erstwhile Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had called Savarkar “a classical revolutionary”.

“Former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi recognised and hailed the legacy of great freedom fighter Veer Savarkar. The then government had issued a commemorative stamp on Veer Savarkar in 1970,” he had said.

The Gehlot government has approved of the Veer Savarkar description as son of Portugal, contending that it was done on the recommendation of a panel of academicians.

(This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text.)