BJP fumes at WB govt for disallowing live telecast of Modi's speech in colleges

West Bengal Education Minister Partha Chatterjee had on Friday dubbed Centre's move as an attempt to saffronise education.

The BJP on Saturday said that it was "shocking" and "unfortunate" that the Mamata Banerjee-led government in West Bengal had instructed colleges to ignore the UGC directive to organise live telecast of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's speech on September 11.

Modi will be addressing on September 11 to mark the 125th anniversary of Swami Vivekananda's address at the World Parliament of Religions in Chicago. The UGC had recently sent a circular, asking over 40,000 institutions to organise live telecast of the Prime Minister's speech.

Speaking to news agency ANI, BJP national spokesperson Nalin Kohli said such a behaivour is unacceptable from an elected Chief Minister of the state.

"It's shocking and unfortunate that here is the Chief minister in a democracy that's Mamta Banerjee of West Bengal, who doesn't want the message of the Prime Minister of our India to the students and wants to block it," he added.

West Bengal Education Minister Partha Chatterjee had on Friday dubbed Centre's move as an attempt to saffronise education.

"The Centre cannot do it without informing or without taking the concurrence of the state government concerned," Chatterjee said.

"It is not acceptable to us as we feel it is a clear attempt at saffronisation of education. The colleges and universities in the state were surprised by the UGC circular. Then they approached us. I have clearly told them that there is no necessity to adhere to the UGC directive," he added.

The West Bengal government instructed colleges under its jurisdiction to ignore the UGC directive.

OneIndia News