The Assam Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) media and communication department today held a press conference at Rajiv Bhavan in Guwahati to discuss the importance of the Chhatra Ki Gunj program launched by Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi across the country. Senior party leaders have strongly criticized the education policies of the central and state governments and demanded the resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.
In a press conference, MLA Abdur Rahim said that in a democratic country, it is essential that the government and the ministers of each department have ethics. He said that Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan did not accept the moral responsibility and resigned despite the question papers being leaked several times in important areas like medical education of the country. The MLA accused the present BJP government of manipulating the future and lives of students and said that the failure of the Prime Minister to force the resignation of the Education Minister despite the evidence of the entire incident proved the government’s direct involvement in the paper leak. He said Lal Bahadur Shastri, who was the railway minister during Jawaharlal Nehru’s tenure, resigned over the moral responsibility of a train accident and criticized the current government’s lack of accountability. He strongly condemned the forcible removal of prominent Ladakh environmentalist Sonam Wangchuk from her hunger strike and her detention at Safdarjung Hospital.
Former MLA Satyavarta Kalita said that state government schools can never thrive in states where private schools are established under the leadership of the chief minister. Currently, there is a severe shortage of teachers in government schools in the state in proportion to the number of students, forcing parents to shift their children from the public sector to private schools. He accused the government of failing to provide textbooks to students on time and providing low-quality, cheap uniforms. He said that only big buildings have been constructed in the name of medical college but there are no doctors, nurses or staff there. He said that the doctors and nurses of one college were taken to another college during the medical board inspection. He said that the government would have been rewarded if the two artists painted pictures of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan instead of Wangchuk. He also expressed anger over the artificial flooding in Guwahati city and the poor condition of the roads under the flyover.
The press conference was moderated by Assam Pradesh Congress media wing chairman Vedabrat Bora who expressed deep concern over the current education system. He said the increasing commercialization of the entire education system has imposed a severe psychological burden on students to get only high marks, resulting in severe discrimination against meritorious students from ordinary and poor families. He said it is essential to create a healthy, supportive and psychologically safe environment for students instead of blind competition for marks in educational institutions. After the success of the Kota and Dehradun programmes, Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi will talk to local students and unemployed youth at subsequent events of the Chhatra Ki Gunj program to draft a youth manifesto or an alternative education and employment policy for the future.
The PPCC expressed concern over the current situation and urged the government to formally hold a detailed discussion on the important issue of education for at least one day in the current session of the Assembly.