Madhya Pradesh CM Defends Move to Recommend Books Authored by RSS Leaders for Colleges

Speaking to the media on the sidelines of the ‘Bharatiya Bhasha Mahotsav’, organised here, Mr Yadav said that educational institutions have been opened in all the 55 districts in Madhya Pradesh under the “Pradhan Mantri College of Excellence” programme and libraries have been established in each of these colleges.

“Books of diversified subjects and ideologies will be kept in these libraries. Students should have knowledge about all types of knowledge and ideologies. There should be books in different languages whoever the authors are. The government is working to develop a habit of reading books of different authors (among the students)”, he said.

‘Books matter, not the authors, as far as gaining knowledge is concerned’, he said.

Taking serious note of the controversy, triggered by the government’s move, Mr Yadav sought to clarify that there is a procedure to change the curriculum in the colleges.

“Committees are constituted to decide on the curriculum and the change in curriculum will be based on the recommendations of these committees. The recent decision is all about keeping books in the libraries and the source of purchase of books are told. It is up to the readers to choose which book he or she would like to read. But, we are very clear that all types of books should be there”, he added.

These colleges are started by the Madhya Pradesh government to offer courses aligned with the New Education Policy (NEP) 2020 which aims to make education employment-oriented.

Mr Yadav said that although Hindi is the official language of India, there is respect for all the languages spoken in the country.

The objective behind the NEP 2020, implemented by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is that everyone can study in their regional languages, he said.