The News Minute | September 5, 2014 | 09:06 am ISTBangalore, September 5, 2014 – Union Human Resources Development Minister Smriti Irani seems to be over-stretching herself to prove a point which could be that she is the right person for the right job. According to a report in The Indian Express, Irani is focusing on extraneous issues instead of those that need urgent repair. Under her watch, the University Grants Commission (UGC) has clamped down on Delhi University’s Four Year Undergraduate Programme (FYUP) soon after clearing it, has dared the IITs and watched silently as Dina Nath Batra’s books have been made compulsory reading in schools. While few in India would disagree that the country’s education system system needs a major re-haul, her method of work has drawn negative reactions with the most critical saying that she is not someone who consuls widely or seeks to build a consensus. The Indian Express goes on to say that in yet another politicization of education Batra who is an RSS activist and convenor of the Siksha Bachao Andolan Samiti, books with titles like Indianidation of education, Brilliant India and Vedic Mathematics have been made compulsory reading.The report also says that some senior Cabinet colleagues have expressed concern over how the education sector is being handled. "At an Express Adda event in Mumbai on August 27, Union Finance and Defence Minister Arun Jaitley pointed out the need to liberalise the sector by allowing more autonomous universities and independent institutions," the report says.Politics and science have always been a dangerous mix. It is nobody’s case that Indians should not read about their languages and culture but attracting controversy and criticism needlessly will damage more than it will salvage.
