Cardinal Cleemis meets opposition MPs over saffronisation of education

Cardinal Baselios Mar Cleemis, president of the Catholic Bishops Conference of India met leaders of several political parties in Delhi on Thursday, expressing concerns regarding the “saffronisation of education”.

He also pointed out that none of the 35,000 Christian institutions in the country had so far been consulted on the National Education Policy.

The Human Resource Development Ministry has invited online suggestions on the new education policy. It is also holding over 2.75 lakh direct consultations at the grassroots level.

The Cardinal’s meeting also saw discussions on recent statements by some leaders. These included the recent statement of VHP patron Ashok Singhal in which he said India would become a Hindu Rashtra by 2020.

Also on the agenda was the RSS demand that the “minority” character of an institution should be determined by the composition of its students and not the religion of its administrators.

Among the leaders present were Congress’s Oscar Fernandes, TMC’s Derek O’Brien and AIADMK’s Ravi Bernard.