Bhagvad Gita in Madhya Pradesh school syllabus?

Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has stirred a hornet's nest in the state by announcing that Bhagvad Gita would be taught in all schools, with Opposition Congress dubbing the move as an attempt to saffronise education.

The CM made this announcement at a function recently held in Indore following which he invited much criticism.

Chouhan, however remained unfazed by the opposition and remarked that nobody could find anything wrong with the teaching of Gita which is a sacred text for all Hindus.

Reacting to this, MP Congress Media Department Chairman, Manak Agrawal told PTI, "India is a secular country where no one can be allowed to talk like this."

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Agrawal said that Congress was not opposed to Gita as such but wanted that teachings from the Quran, the Bible and the Guru Granth Sahib be also included in school courses.

Leader of Opposition in Madhya Pradesh Assembly, Ajay Singh said it is an attempt to saffronise the education system in the state.

"Schools are not meant for doing 'havans' or 'Gita Paath' and we will oppose the move vociferously in the entire state and also raise it in the State Assembly," Ajay said.

The chief minister's announcements also did not go down well with the minorities in the state.

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Muslims and Christians criticised the move and said that this was not as per the secular character of the country.

Ajay said it appears that the chief minister is in the habit of periodically making announcements which create a flutter and then seem to die a natural death.

He said that sometime back Chouhan had announced with great fanfare that the name of Bhopal would be changed to Bhojpal.

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Singh said that the chief minister believes only in making announcements and does not bother to look into its implementation.

He also said that Chouhan is doing all this to divert people's attention from the real problem of bad roads, shortage of power, crisis of fertiliser and plight of the farmers in the state.

Earlier, the state government had introduced 'Surya Namaskar' in schools, which was also opposed.

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