Mumbai: Samajwadi Party on Thursday demanded that an order mandating schools to hold renditions of ‘Vande Mataram’ to mark its 150th anniversary between Oct 31 and Nov 7 be revoked. SP MLA from Bhiwandi East, Rais Shaikh, alleged that instead of focusing on quality education, the state govt was pushing the RSS’s cultural agenda. “I strongly oppose the Education Department’s compulsion on schools to sing ‘Vande Mataram’. The govt must immediately scrap this decision. The government should not disturb the atmosphere of the education sector by bringing in religious issues,” said Shaikh in his letter to CM Devendra Fadnavis, school education minister Dada Bhuse and minister of state for education Pankaja Bhoyar. Shaikh said ‘Jana Gana Mana’, written by Rabindranath Tagore, is the national anthem. “Forcing the singing of ‘Vande Mataram’ violates constitutional rights of citizens. It is not good governance for a progressive state like Maharashtra that when an organisation sends a letter to the minister, the education department immediately imposes such a compulsion on schools,” he said. Shaikh said the education system is dire, and govt’s focus should be improving academic quality.
