Nagpur (Maharashtra) [India], March 31 : Maharashtra Chief Devendra Fadnavis on Monday lauded the New Education Policy (NEP) saying that NEP is "Indiansation" of the education system of India.
"I think this (NEP) is Indianisation of the education system of India..." Fadnavis told reporters in Nagpur.
This comes after the Congress Parliamentary Party (CPP) chairperson Sonia Gandhi launched a fierce critique on the Centre on the issue of NEP, accusing it of implementing its "three core agendas -- centralisation, commercialisation and communalisation" in an opinion piece written in The Hindu.
Reacting to this, Chief Minister Fadnavis stated that Sonia Gandhi should gain more information and support the 'Indianisation' of the Indian education system.
The Chief Minister said, "If the Education Policy that Macaulay brought to enslave our country, if that system is replaced and Indianisation is done, I think no one should have any problem with that. Any patriot will support it. I think Sonia Gandhi ji should know more about it and fully support the Indianisation of the Indian education system."
Earlier on Saturday, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said that the tendency to divide the country based on language must come to an end. He reiterated that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) remains committed to protecting Hindi and all other Indian languages.
"Some people are unnecessarily creating controversy over Tamil and Hindi languages. However, the BJP is fully committed to protecting Hindi and all other Indian languages, and we are working towards that. There is no competition between Hindi and other Indian languages, but rather a spirit of cooperation among them. Hindi strengthens all Indian languages, and all Indian languages strengthen Hindi," Rajnath Singh said.
"This trend of dividing the country in the name of language must stop. And if anyone can spread this message effectively and play an active role in it, I believe our sisters can do it in a more impactful way," he added.
The Defence Minister was speaking at an event organised to commemorate Tamil warrior queen Rani Velu Nachiyar.
His comments come at a time when the Tamil Nadu government, led by MK Stalin, is at odds with the Central government regarding the three-language formula proposed in the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 and the delimitation exercise.