JMM-lead government against tribals and poor: BJP

RANCHI: A day after chief minister Hemant Soren red-flagged the National Education Policy (NEP), which will be tabled in Parliament before its rollout in the country, the BJP state unit on Tuesday called the Jharkhand government under JMM as anti-tribal and anti-poor for opposing the policy.
During the online deliberation on NEP with President Ram Nath Kovind and Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday, Soren had criticised the policy saying it will promote privatisation of education and will leave out students from families of tribals, Dalits, farmers and other marginalised people from its ambit. He also criticised the Centre on the lack of transparency during the policy drafting and said the draft did not have any provisions for arranging funds for its implementation.
Rebutting Soren’s claims, BJP spokesperson Pratul Shahdeo said the CM is playing dirty politics over the future of poor and tribals in Jharkhand.
Talking to newsmen, he said, “By opposing and criticizing NEP, Hemant Sorenji has shown himself as anti-tribal and anti-poor. The points that he raised during the meeting before the President is proof enough that the incumbent state government wants to oppose everything that the Union government does. But by doing so, he (Soren) is only putting the future of scores of tribals and the poor at stake.”
Shahdeo said Soren’s jibe against the NEP that it doesn’t take into account of making a student employable is laughable. “For the first time, NEP prescribes vocational studies from Class VI itself, which in the long run will make students job-ready,” he said, adding that around 17,000 graduates of tribal and regional languages in Jharkhand are without jobs and they can be easily inducted for teaching students in local languages once the NEP is implemented.
On Soren’s apprehension that the policy did not give much weightage to tribal languages as teaching, Shahdeo said, “The NEP has provisions for teaching in local and regional languages included in Schedule VIII of the Constitution. Santhali language, prominently spoken in the state, is included in the schedule. As far as other tribal languages are concerned, it is the responsibility of the state to pursue with the Centre for their inclusion in the schedule.”
On CM’s key charge of the NEP promoting privatisation of education, the spokesperson said, “Every year, lakhs of students including from Jharkhand go abroad to pursue higher studies. With NEP, foreign varsities will be allowed to set up shops here. It will help Indians save on expenses and foreign reserves will also flow into our country. The policy also mandates for 20% admission for underprivileged students and 30% scholarships to other deserving students.”
He added, “Most importantly, the policy also allows those who have dropped out to restart their studies from the point where they halted. A panel titled High Education Commission of India is also recommended for establishment by NEP and will act as the watchdog to all ensure all provisions of the education policy are followed.”
Notably, Soren, who is running a coalition government along with Congress and RJD, has been at loggerheads with the Centre over various issues ever since he assumed office in January this year.
Over a month ago, the state government challenged the Centre’s plan to commercialise coal mining blocks by filing a petition in the Supreme Court after the Union government didn’t acknowledge Soren’s letter requesting to defer the process owing to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Centre and the state weren’t also on the same page on the nationwide lockdown as the latter dubbed the Modi government for unilaterally taking decisions without consulting the states.
Soren was critical of the Centre saying it did not provide enough financial assistance to combat the Covid-19 pandemic in the state. The spat further intensified after the Centre recently expressed its inability to clear GST dues, prompting the CM to write to the Prime Minister demanding Rs 2,500 crore.