Chennai: Amid the ongoing tussle over renaming of the Teachers’ Day, Smriti Irani on Monday said, “ There are no reasons to object, Guru Utsav is only an essay competition being organised on the day.â€
Earlier, DMK Chief Karunanidhi slammed the Centre for reportedly sending a circular to schools asking them to celebrate Teacher’s Days as ‘Guru Utsav’.Â
The former Tamil Nadu chief minister said, “For years we’ve celebrated it as Teacher’s Day. The Centre has now changed it to ‘Guru Utsav’ through a government order. This is how they first lay their hands on our language. After defeating it they plot little by little to defeat those belonging to the language, those who reached great heights through language and those who hurt themselves for the language. We do not need any other example for this.”Â
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Meanwhile, a row has broken out over the Human Resource and Development (HRD) Ministry’s directive on the compulsory viewing of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Teachers Day speech by school students across the country. The opposition slammed the government directive and said schools and parents will be inconvenienced by this directive.
A number of private schools termed the initiative as “good and positive”, but they feel making the necessary arrangements for showing the address to the students will put lot of burden on the teachers and they will not be able to celebrate the day.
Some schools said they will now be forced to stretch their schedule as generally they close by 2 pm. But after this directive they will be forced to stay open even after 2 pm as Modi’s address will be telecast from 3pm to 5pm.
HRD officials said that schools have been asked to facilitate live telecast of the address and attendance is not mandatory for students.
Congress leader Manish Tewari said, “The government is inconveniencing teachers, students and parents. The PM should re-schedule his speech.”
Rajya Sabha MP and Shiv Sena spokesperson Sanjay Raut said, “If Central Government has taken decision of Teachers Say then it is for everyone. The Prime Minister has full right to take such decisions.”