Modi move to address schools on Teachers' Day an official intrusion in educational institutions: RTE Forum

By A Representative
The All-India Forum for Right to Education (AIFRE), consisting of some of the most reputed educationists, has strongly protested against what it has called the Government of India’s attempt to officially “intrude into the calendar of educational institutions.” Calling the Prime Minister’s decision to address all children across India as nothing but “marginalizing the teachers and the students”, the authoritative organization says, “Misfortunes as they say never come alone. Now Chief Ministers are also joining the race to politically indoctrinate the students/ teachers on Teachers Day.”
“From Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh Haryana and elsewhere, CM’s are claiming their right to pontificate along with the PM. The overdose of official sermons will therefore carry on for hours”, the AIFRTE points out, adding, “Ever since the PM decided that he, and not the teaching community, should be the focus of children’s attention on September 5, 2014, the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) has swung into over-drive. Circulars, memos, and office orders are being sent to state governments and CBSE schools, to government schools, aided and unaided schools, to ensure that all children hear the PM’s address ‘live’ – all technological equipment required for the purpose is being `generously’ funded!”
The statement regrets, “Unfortunately, the PM’s two-hour address begins only at 3 pm. So students and teachers will not only be deprived of ‘their’ day; they will also have to be in school till after 5 pm! This will cause serious inconvenience in some states, but everywhere it will force the students to have a tediously long day at school. Attendance information from all schools will be sent to local administration, state governments and the MHRD.”
“However”, the statement says, “the problem does not end here. There is a deeper target. Teachers’ Day, the MHRD ordered, would now be celebrated as ‘Guru Utsav’. Despite MHRD Minister’s denials after strong protests erupted in some states, the issue cannot be ignored. For this is a classic example of the BJP’s attempts when in control of government to embark on a process of ‘Sanskritization’ of movements, public projects and campaigns, irrespective of the preferences and linguistic usages of different sections of the people.”
It says, “Recall how Jharkhand and Uttarakhand, names used by the popular movements that led to the creation of these states, were sought to be called ‘Vananchal’ and ‘Uttaranchal’. Recall also that one of the Minister’s first pronouncements threatened introduction of ‘vedic values’ in primary schools. And MHRD has already ensured that schools all over the country recently observed a ‘Sanskrit Week’.”
The statement further says, “These are not merely cases of what nomenclature or language you chose to promote. It is part of a conception and programme to privilege the language and content of Brahmanical texts in an attempt to consolidate and confirm the hegemony of upper castes over the country’s many languages, cultures and belief systems even today. The term ‘guru’ may be uncritically employed in common usage, but that cannot alter the fact that it still stands for a pre-modern pedagogy that extols conformism and subordination to the exclusion of developing the habit of critical reasoning in students.”
The AIFRTE regrets, “Bombastic terms like ‘guru’ and ‘acharya’ can hardly conceal the real status of teachers in the government school system where the practice of overloading them with non-academic and official tasks, and the threatening use of contract and para-teachers, is daily reducing them to little more than cheap labour.”
It recalls, “Teachers Day has been celebrated for decades on 5th September, the birthday of President S Radhakrishnan, a renowned academician, teacher, and chairman of the University Education Commission 1948-49. It honours teachers across the country and is a day for students and teachers to renew their bond through local institutional programmes and personally expressed acts of gratitude. In some institutions students take over faculty responsibilities to better appreciate the teachers contribution to education.”
Among those who have signed the statement include D Meher Engineer, W.Bengal Chairperson, AIFRTE, Ex-President, IASS; Prof Wasi Ahmed, Bihar, Ex-Jt Secretary, AIFUCTO; Prabhakar Arade, Maharashtra, President, AIFETO; Prof G Haragopal, Andhra Pradesh, National Fellow, ICSSR; Prof Madhu Prasad, Delhi, Ex-Faculty, DU, spokesperson AIFRTE; Prof Anil Sadgopal, Madhya Pradesh, Ex-Dean, CIE, Delhi University; Prof K. Shrimali, Delhi, Department of of History, Delhi University; and Dr Anand Teltumbde, W. Bengal, IIT, Kharagpur.

Comments

Was Netaji forced to alter face, die in obscurity in USSR in 1975? Was he so meek?

By Rajiv Shah This should sound almost hilarious. Not only did Subhas Chandra Bose not die in a plane crash in Taipei, nor was he the mysterious Gumnami Baba who reportedly passed away on 16 September 1985 in Ayodhya, but we are now told that he actually died in 1975—date unknown—“in oblivion” somewhere in the former Soviet Union. Which city? Moscow? No one seems to know.

Love letters in a lifelong war: Babusha Kohli’s resistance in verse

By Ravi Ranjan* “War does not determine who is right—only who is left.” Bertrand Russell’s words echo hauntingly in our times, and few contemporary Hindi poets embody this truth as profoundly as Babusha Kohli. Emerging from Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, Kohli has carved a unique space in literature by weaving together tenderness, protest, and philosophy across poetry, prose, and cinema. Her work is not merely artistic expression—it is resistance, refuge, and a call for peace.

Swami Vivekananda's views on caste and sexuality were 'painfully' regressive

By Bhaskar Sur* Swami Vivekananda now belongs more to the modern Hindu mythology than reality. It makes a daunting job to discover the real human being who knew unemployment, humiliation of losing a teaching job for 'incompetence', longed in vain for the bliss of a happy conjugal life only to suffer the consequent frustration.

Asbestos contamination in children’s products highlights global oversight gaps

By A Representative A commentary published by the International Ban Asbestos Secretariat (IBAS) has drawn attention to the challenges governments face in responding effectively to global public-health risks. In an article written by Laurie Kazan-Allen and published on March 5, 2026, the author examines how the discovery of asbestos contamination in children’s play products has raised questions about regulatory oversight and international product safety. The article opens by reflecting on lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic, noting that governments in several countries were slow to respond to early warning signs of the crisis. Referring to the experience of the United Kingdom, the author writes that delays in implementing protective measures contributed to “232,112 recorded deaths and over a million people suffering from long Covid.” The commentary uses this example to illustrate what it describes as the dangers of underestimating emerging threats. Attention then turns...

Buddhist shrines were 'massively destroyed' by Brahmanical rulers: Historian DN Jha

Nalanda mahavihara By Rajiv Shah Prominent historian DN Jha, an expert in India's ancient and medieval past, in his new book , "Against the Grain: Notes on Identity, Intolerance and History", in a sharp critique of "Hindutva ideologues", who look at the ancient period of Indian history as "a golden age marked by social harmony, devoid of any religious violence", has said, "Demolition and desecration of rival religious establishments, and the appropriation of their idols, was not uncommon in India before the advent of Islam".

Echoes of Vietnam and Chile: The devastating cost of the I-A Axis in Iran

By Ram Puniyani The recent joint military actions by Israel and the United States against Iran have been devastating. Like all wars, this conflict is brutal to its core, leaving a trail of human suffering in its wake. The stated pretext for this aggression—the brutality of the Ayatollah Khamenei regime and its nuclear ambitions—clashes sharply with the reality of the diplomatic landscape. Iran had expressed a willingness to remain at the negotiating table, signaling a readiness to concede points emerging from dialogue.

Authoritarian destruction of the public sphere in Ecuador: Trumpism in action?

By Pilar Troya Fernández The situation in Ecuador under Daniel Noboa's government is one of authoritarianism advancing on several fronts simultaneously to consolidate neoliberalism and total submission to the US international agenda. These are not isolated measures, but rather a coordinated strategy that combines job insecurity, the dismantling of the welfare state, unrestricted access to mining, the continuation of oil exploitation without environmental considerations, the centralization of power through the financial suffocation of local governments, and the systematic criminalization of all forms of opposition and popular organization.

The kitchen as prison: A feminist elegy for domestic slavery

By Garima Srivastava* Kumar Ambuj stands as one of the most incisive voices in contemporary Hindi poetry. His work, stripped of ornamentation, speaks directly to the lived realities of India’s marginalized—women, the rural poor, and those crushed under invisible forms of violence. His celebrated poem “Women Who Cook” (Khānā Banātī Striyāṃ) is not merely about food preparation; it is a searing indictment of patriarchal domestic structures that reduce women’s existence to endless, unpaid labour.

The price of silence: Why Modi won’t follow Shastri, appeal for sacrifice

By Arundhati Dhuru, Sandeep Pandey* In 1965, as India grappled with war and a crippling food crisis, Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri faced a United States that used wheat shipments under the PL-480 agreement as a lever to dictate Indian foreign policy. Shastri’s response remains legendary: he appealed to the nation to skip one meal a day. Millions of middle-class households complied, choosing temporary hunger over the sacrifice of national dignity. Today, India faces a modern equivalent in the energy sector, yet the leadership’s response stands in stark contrast to that era of self-reliance.

Search This Blog