Can’t glorify naysayers of freedom struggle: CM

Thiruvananthapuram: Chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan clarified that it is not the government’s approach to glorify

ideologies

and leaders who had turned their faces away from the country’s

independence struggle

.

Reacting to Kannur University’s decision to include the articles by RSS ideologues V D

Savarkar

and M S

Golwalkar

in the post-graduate course syllabi of the university, the chief minister said that sometimes it may be required to critically examine such ideologies, but no one should glorify those.

Stating that the higher education minister and the university vice-chancellor has already responded in the matter, he said that the university has also initiated steps in this regard and appointed a two-member committee. The expert committee includes former pro vice-chancellor and former professor of political sciences of Kerala University J Prabhash and former political sciences professor in Calicut University K S Pavithran. The chief minister said that the university vice-chancellor himself has clarified that a decision will be taken on the basis of the recommendations of the expert committee.

The university had included the extracts from Savarkar’s “Hindutva: who is a Hindu”, and Golwalkar’s “Bunch of Thoughts” in the MA governance and politics syllabi of the university. Meanwhile, opposition leader V D Satheesan said that Kannur University should reconsider its decision and immediately withdraw the syllabus. He said that the decision of the university to give recognition to the spiritual and political leaders of the murderers of Gandhiji cannot be agreed to. The move to implement the RSS agenda in the state’s civil society through the university is condemnable.

Satheesan said that this is a hardcore rightwing stand, and it should be clarified if the universities in the state and CPM are supporting this stand. He further said that Savarkar and Golwalkar were people who tried to build a religion-based country. He asked whether the students should learn the ideology of such individuals or the teachings of Gandhiji and Jawaharlal Nehru.


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