CHENNAI: An otherwise bland meet of vice-chancellors on Friday saw Tamil Nadu chief minister M K Stalin and governor R N Ravi crossing swords on several issues ranging from education policy to federalism.
While Stalin said the Union government was pushing its ‘regressive and backward ideas in syllabus', Ravi said those who talk of federalism should remember that India is not a ‘contractual union of disparate people'.
Inaugurating the south zone vice-chancellors' meet at Bharathiar University in Coimbatore, governor Ravi took an indirect dig at Tamil Nadu and urged those who talk about federalism and the Indian Union to remember that India was not born in 1947, nor is it a contractual union like the United States of America.
"India is not a contractual union of disparate people ... Union of India was organically forged and sustained through thousands of years by the shared cultural spirituality of people who lived as one from one end to the other of Bharat, irrespective of numerous kings and kingdoms," Ravi said.
Article 1 of the Constitution says ‘India that is Bharat, even before it says India is a union of states', the governor said, adding that higher education is to be transformed in the context of an "Indian vision of India" and "Indian vision for India."
Addressing the same event through virtual mode, Chief Minister Stalin said it is worrying that the union government is pushing its regressive and backward ideas in syllabus on the pretext that education is in the Concurrent List.
Stalin asked the vice-chancellors to develop scientific temper among the students. "The desire of people is that universities should act as per the education policy of the state. Vice-chancellors need to understand this and function. The permanent solution to the issue is to move education back to the State List," he added.
The CM also reminded the vice-chancellors that the important objective of Indian higher education is providing job-oriented education and not just giving out degrees. He asked them to make skill-based education and training mandatory in syllabus.
During his speech on Friday, Governor Ravi also said Five-Year Plan resulted in uneven development and aggravated regional imbalances and increased social tensions. "Even after six and half decades, India had the dubious distinctions of a home of largest number of poor, sick and illiterates. Internally India was riven by social tensions. Being weak, vulnerable and poor, it was not taken seriously by the international community," he said.
He praised PM Narendra Modi for making a fundamental departure from the old paradigm in 2014 and articulating the Indian vision of India which is Bharat, as one living entity.
The governor-chief minister spar over education and federalism has come in the backdrop of their disagreement over issues such as national educational policy (NEP) and Tamil Nadu's anti-NEET Bill. While the governor bats for the implementation of NEP-2020 in Tamil Nadu state universities, the state government says it would evolve its own education policy to suit the aspirations of people in Tamil Nadu.
Around 100 vice-chancellors from the universities in six southern states took part in the meet titled ‘Realizing Sustainable Development Goal through Higher Education Institutions for Ensuring Inclusive and Equitable Education."
