The CPI(M) on Wednesday opposed the new National Education Policy introduced by the government and termed it an "unilateral drive to "destroy Indian education".

The party alleged that Parliament has been completely bypassed in the process of forming the policy.

The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved the new National Education Policy (NEP) and renamed the HRD Ministry as Education Ministry, officials said.

A panel led by former Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chief K Kasturirangan had submitted the draft of the new policy to Union Human Resource Development Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal 'Nishank' when he took charge last year.

The draft was then put in public domain to seek feedback from various stakeholders and over two lakh suggestions were received by the HRD Ministry about the same.

"The Polit Bureau of the CPI(M) strongly denounces the Union Cabinet decision to unilaterally impose a New Education Policy and rename the Ministry of Human Resource Development," the CPI(M) said in a statement.

"Education is in the Concurrent List in our Constitution. It is a gross violation by the Central government to impose a New Education Policy unilaterally bypassing all the objections and opposition recorded by various state governments, it said.

It also said that any new policy of such nature needs to be discussed in Parliament and this was assured by the government earlier.

This unilateral drive is to destroy the Indian education system with a policy that seeks greater centralization, communalization and commercialization of Indian education.

"The Polit Bureau of the CPI(M) strongly protests against this move by the BJP Central government.The Polit Bureau demands that a thorough discussion in Parliament be held before implementation begins," it said.