Addressing the media on Tuesday, Faleiro said that Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar recently announced that the government will introduce yoga training and value education in government primary schools.
“Yoga training is welcome. However, it should be dissociated completely from the proposed value education. The proposal should be discussed threadbare across the State and it should be rejected,” the former Union Minister of State for External Affairs said.
Faleiro said that as per the chief minister the syllabus for this value education will be developed by Patanjali Yogpeeth, an organization established by Baba Ramdev and linked to the Sangh Parivar.
He said that in 2000, the then BJP Union government had proposed a national curriculum framework for school education to introduce value education and this was rejected by all opposition parties in Parliament and almost all States as it would give a sectarian and chauvinistic orientation to school education in the name of value education.
“The same value education is now sought to be reintroduced by the Union Government,” he said.
The Congress leader also opposed the ongoing helicopter joy rides in South Goa. “Government should not go ahead with the helicopter rides in Salcette villages. They will cause immense disturbance and cause environment damage,” he said.
The Union Minister also questioned the need to identify alternative sites for relocation of offshore casino vessels, when in 2014 casino operators had themselves given undertakings to the State that they would move out of River Mandovi.
