Senior Congress leader Randeep Surjewala.

Days after the BJP government unveiled the New Education Policy (NEP), the Congress on Sunday picked several holes in the policy, saying it is “high on catchwords, gloss, appearance and verbosity” but lacks substance and clarity in terms of its roadmap for implementation, strategy, clearly-defined milestones and the critical finances necessary to execute the vision.

The Congress questioned the timing of the decision considering that the country is still reeling under the impact of the coronavirus outbreak. Arguing that the “entire academia has complained of no consultation, no discussion and no deliberations, except with BJP-RSS affiliates”, the party demanded that the policy should be debated in Parliament and scrutinised by a House committee.

Addressing a press conference, former HRD minister Pallam Raju, the party’s communication department head Randeep Surjewala and head of the party’s research department Rajeev Gowda said the NEP promotes privatisation of public education, which will lead to fund cuts, fee hikes and expensive education in absence of government grants .

“Privatisation of education along with multiple exit points would lead to more dropouts, the opposite of the stated claim of the government. Shrinking of public institutions and over-reliance on unregulated privatisation will lead to putting higher education out of the reach of the middle class and the disadvantaged,” they said.