Coimbatore/ Chennai, Mar 11 (PTI) Tamil Nadu Governor R N Ravi on Friday said India is not a contractual union like the US but was organically forged and sustained for thousands of years due to shared cultural spiritualities.
The Governor who sent a strong message across while inaugurating the South Zone Vice-Chancellors’ Meet held under the aegis of Association of Indian Universities, New Delhi at Bharathiar University, Coimbatore, likened the country to the various parts of the body and said each part has its own function and apparently looked different from the other but integrally connected and has no existence outside the body.
Earlier, virtually addressing the meet from Chennai, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin expressed concern over education continuing to remain in the concurrent list and alleged that the Central government exercised its powers to “push its regressive views in syllabus.” Bringing education back to the state list will serve as the best solution for this, he said without elaborating.
Inaugurating the Meet with the theme: Realising Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through Higher Education Institutions (HEIs), with special reference to SDG-4 (Realising SDGs through HEIs for Ensuring Inclusive & Equitable Quality Education, the Governor said “those who talk about federalism and Indian Union should remember that India was not born in 1947 nor it is a contractual union like United States of America.” He said the Union of India was organically forged and sustained since some thousands of years by the shared cultural spiritualties of people who lived as one from one end to the other of Bharat irrespective of numerous kings and kingdoms.
“Article 1 of the Constitution of India says India shall be a union of states. It says ‘India that is Bharat’,” he stressed and asserted that Bharat has been one living entity since ages, praised by the ancient rishis and common people from Kanyakumari to Kashmir and from Kutch to Kamrup in their every day’s rites and rituals.
Quoting Mahakavi Bharathiar’s poem in praise of Bharat Mata that “Bharat Mata speaks in eighteen languages but her thinking is one,” the Governor said “India is not a contractual Union of disparate people.” “Here, diversity is like diversity of various parts of our body where each part has its own function and apparently looks different from the others but is integrally connected and has no existence whatsoever outside the body,” Ravi said.
It was with such organic vision of India that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been launching various schemes for the people of India specially the poor, marginalised and deprived without any regional, religious, community or political discrimination, he claimed.
Ravi said higher education is to be transformed in the context of an ‘Indian vision of India’ and “Indian vision for India.” Initial six and half decades since independence those who governed India had a vision of India similar to that of the colonial power as a land of diverse geographies and diverse sets of people, separated from each other by language, culture, cuisine, race and geography. Their mode of India’s development was through five-year plan which resulted in uneven development and aggravated regional imbalances and increased social tensions.
“Even after six and half decades, India had the dubious distinctions of a home of largest number of poor, sick and illiterates. Internally, India was riven by social tensions. Being weak, vulnerable and poor it was not taken seriously by the international community,” Ravi said and claimed that in 2014 the Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a fundamental departure from the old paradigm and articulated the Indian vision of India which is Bharat, as one living entity.
He urged the Vice-Chancellors to work out plans for the future and to formulate strategies for transforming our higher education consistent with our national dream to make it the world leader by 2047 when the Nation will be celebrating 100 years of Independence.
Meanwhile, the Chief Minister said, “it’s a concern that the Centre is exercising its powers to use education to thrust its regressive views. Bringing education back to the state list will be the best solution to stop this.” The vice-chancellors, the Chief Minister said, played a crucial role in shaping the functioning and quality of education. They should strive to foster scientific temper among the students.
Reminding that the vice-chancellors have a big responsibility to impart education that will equip the students for jobs, Stalin emphasised on imparting skill-based education and training in the curriculum. “This is the reason why I had launched the Naan Mudhalvan (skill development scheme),” he said.
The Chief Minister took pride in saying Tamil Nadu’s gross enrolment ratio in higher education stood at 51.4 per cent, which is far above the national average of 27.1 per cent. “This is Tamil Nadu’s unique achievement. The GER is almost double the national average and in the state, we have a student-teacher ratio of 17:1,” he said.
The Chief Minister pointed out that there were 1,553 colleges spread across the state. About 19 universities and 33 colleges in the state have been ranked among the top 100 in the National Institutional Ranking Framework 2020-21. The state had allotted Rs 5,369 crore in the budget 2021-22 for higher education, he said. PTI NVM JSP SS SS
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