Kerala to look into how circular on Deendayal Upadhyaya event went to schools

Deen Dayal Upadhyay.

FACED WITH criticism from Opposition Congress about a “secret understanding” with the Sangh Parivar after it emerged that Kerala’s Director of Public Instruction (DPI) had forwarded a circular from the HRD Ministry to state schools, asking them to observe RSS ideologue Deendayal Upadhyaya’s birth centenary, the CPI(M)-led LDF government was at pains on Wednesday to explain that there was no such plan.

“The department had got a directive from the MHRD… We will look into why the directive has gone to schools from DPI,” Education Minister Prof C Raveendranath said.

But pointing out that Upadhyaya’s birth centenary was on September 25, the minister said, “No school in Kerala had observed the event. This shows the government had not given consent to celebrate the day.”

The MHRD had issued a circular to the state Education Secretary on June 29 this year regarding the birth centenary celebrations. Based on the letter, DPI issued a circular on August 31, along with a copy of the directive, to all subordinate offices. It asked them to mark the centenary celebrations in schools by holding essay competitions, etc.

The circular sparked a controversy on Tuesday, when it emerged in public domain. The Education Minister also learnt about it on Tuesday.

DPI K V Mohankumar said MHRD Secretary Anil Swarup had issued the directive to Education Secretary Usha Titus, who passed it on to the DPI. “Since it was an official directive from the Union government, we have issued it to sub-ordinate offices and schools. No political consent is required for such a directive. There was nothing wrong in it,” Mohankumar said.

Congress leader Ramesh Chennithala said the issue shows CPI(M)’s double standards, and that the party challenges the RSS in public but crawls before the Sangh Parivar.