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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Gowda gives Gita jitters by KM Rakesh

Gowda gives Gita jitters by KM Rakesh

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published Published on Jan 10, 2012   modified Modified on Jan 10, 2012

BJP chief minister D.V. Sadananda Gowda has said he wants the Bhagvad Gita taught in schools across Karnataka, reviving a touchy subject.

Prodded by the BJP government, several schools run by Hindu organisations have been holding Gita classes since January 2011 in parts of the state, which has seen attacks on Christians and churches by Hindutva groups in the past three years.

The latest statement, coming from the chief minister himself and carrying hints of the move being imposed on all schools, has rattled minorities.

“If they allow one religion to have its holy text in schools, they would have to allow the others as well,” said the Bishop of Mysore, Thomas Valapalli.

“Why can’t this government let the people live peacefully?” said Masood Abdul Khader, convener of the Anjuman Khudamullem Muslimeen, a confederation of 28 Muslim organisations. “If they (the government) still want to do it, let them introduce holy books of all religions.”

Gowda told the state-level Bhagvad Gita Abhiyan yesterday that his government was open to the idea of introducing the Gita in all schools.

He claimed there would be no opposition to the move since the Gita, according to him, was not confined to a single religion. He, however, said all religious groups would be consulted first.

Bishop Valapalli cited this part of Gowda’s statement to advocate a wait-and-watch policy. “We will have to see what the government is up to before we decide what to do,” he said.

Valapalli has more than a hundred schools directly under him, while various other Christian groups run about 30 more schools in Mysore alone. The bishop said the state probably had over 700 Christian-managed schools.

Archbishop Bernard Moraes of the Bangalore diocese, ailing in hospital, was not available for comment.

The government’s January 2011 circular suggesting schools teach the Gita had caused controversy but Karnataka High Court in August dismissed a petition that challenged the move. It ruled that the programme itself was not funded by the government and had been left to the schools.

Only some Hindu-managed schools in Kolar, a district neighbouring Bangalore, and southern Karnataka now teach the Gita, mainly through teachers trained to do so by groups such as the Swarnavalli Mutt in Bangalore.

All other schools have ignored the circular. Even in Kolar, non-Hindu students and many Hindu pupils skip the classes.

In June, though, state school education minister Vishweshwar Hegde Kageri spoke of making the teaching of the Gita compulsory in all schools and asked whoever was opposed to it to leave the country.

However, political crisis soon struck the BJP, with then chief minister B.S. Yeddyurappa forced to quit on corruption charges, and the Gita plan was pushed to the backburner till Gowda revived it.


The Telegraph, 10 January, 2012, http://www.telegraphindia.com/1120110/jsp/nation/story_14986233.jsp


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