NEP row: DKS hits back at Nirmala, reiterates state won’t implement it

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: The row over the National Education Policy (NEP) seems to have no end with the Congress government in Karnataka hitting back at the Union government, dubbing it the ‘Nagpur Educational Policy.’

Addressing the press on I-Day, Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar said the state will scrap the NEP and adopt a State Education Policy (SEP).

Recently, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had alleged that the Congress government in Karnataka dislikes Prime Minister Narendra Modi which is why the state is abolishing the NEP.

Reacting to her statement, Shivakumar said it is the ‘Nagpur Education Policy’ and there are a lot of lacunae in it.

“If NEP is exceptionally good, why doesn’t the BJP government implement it in states like UP, MP, Haryana, etc? We don’t want to play with our children’s future”, he said.

Earlier, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah had said the state will replace NEP with an education policy that aligns with the Constitution and attacked the BJP over its ideology saying it clashes with the Constitution.

He also alleged the BJP is trying to enforce the agenda of RSS through the NEP, and claimed the draft was prepared in the headquarters of the RSS.