TEAM HERALD
teamherald@herald-goa.com
PANJIM: The official endorsement of the controversial Patanjali Yog Samiti initiated essay competition for schools by the Education Department has evoked sharp reactions Thursday calling for an immediate suspension of the on-going series of essay competitions revolving around the presumed Lord Macaulay’s address to British Parliament saying that it attempts to create a communal and linguistic divide by involving young students.
Spokesperson of the Congress Party Alexio Reginaldo Lourenco said, “An essay competition by a private organisation having no links with education should not be allowed and the Education Department should not support groups who are trying to create a divide in society by slipping in hidden agenda of a few people.”
The essay competition organized only in Goa ~ even as Portuguese ruled here and promoted Portuguese not English and the British did not rule Goa as a colonial power~ exposed the hidden agenda. The contest sought to buttress the point that English is the reason the Colonial powers managed to conquer the country and impacted Indian culture detrimentally.
Reginaldo said that the very fact that the government through the Education Department has patronised such an essay competition is an indication of the hidden agendas of the BJP.
“At no cost should such competitions be held nor should students be forced to participate in such competitions on issues which are contentious and controversial,” he insisted.
The Nationalist Congress Party also vociferously demanded cancellation of the essay competition which the Education Department allowed to be organised for school students which NCP alleged is an attempt to indoctrinate young minds towards a divided society.
“There is a hand of the government in this and as I have always been shouting from the roof top that the BJP is no more BJP but RSS,” its spokesman said. He said that the government is now trying to indoctrinate the RSS communal venom in school children. The present exercise is a different replica of the CD that they produced a decade ago, he observed.
Savio Lopes of the Forum for Rights to Children’s Education said, “The department of education should see that they do not get into any controversial issues especially with private organisations. Even recommending the conduct of such a competition is objectionable.”
