Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader and former Union human resources development minister Murli Manohar Joshi has lashed out at his critics who accused him of saffronising the education system.
Joshi said he undertook revamp and modernisation of education to suit national interests. "The education system had been revamped and modernised by incorporating human values, the duties of the citizens towards the nation, awareness about ecology and inclusion of the ethos of 'sarv dharma sambhav'," he told reporters at his residence in Allahabad on Monday night.
Rubbishing allegations on saffronisation, Joshi said the accusations were misplaced as modernisation of the national curriculum, introduction of astrology as a subject in the universities and steps taken for minority education had from time to time passed the scrutiny of the judiciary.
The former minister also took a swipe at his critics for charging him with tinkering with the NCERT books, particularly history, and said 'correct inputs' were incorporated in the history books so that the students got to know 'the correct history of the country since the ancient times'.
Referring to the hue and cry over the slashing of the fees of the IITs and IIMs, leading to allegations that the autonomy of the institutions were being compromised, he said there was full autonomy to these institutions during his tenure as the human resources development minister and they were allowed to
run in a professional manner.
In an apparent dig at the Left parties for questioning the changes in the NCERT history books, Joshi asked them whether they would teach the students that 'India did not have a history'.
The fact that the NCERT published six crore books last year as compared to two crore in previous years speaks the volume of popularity of the amendments, he claimed.
The senior leader, who was on his maiden visit to Allahabad after losing the Lok Sabha election to Samajwadi Party's Reoti Raman Singh said the BJP was seized with the exercise of introspection of the causes of the electoral debacle.
A host of issues had caused the defeat of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance, he said, adding steps would be taken to revitalise the party to face future challenges.
Joshi also took a dig at the 'squabbling' among the constituents of the United Progressive Alliance government and said the new government would survive as long as RJD chief Laloo Prasad Yadav and Left parties continued to lend support.
Referring to the foreign origin of the Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, the senior BJP leader said that it should be debated whether a person of foreign origin should occupy top constitutional posts of the country.
Joshi also sought to defend the Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Uma Bharati's threat to resign from the post and senior party leader Sushma Swaraj threat to tonsure her head on the issue and said the duo had expressed their 'emotional feelings'.
