Gandhi Jayanti not a holiday in Rajasthan universities this year

THE HIGHER EDUCATION MINISTER SAID ALL SCHOOLS, COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES HOLD GANDHI JAYANTI CELEBRATIONS AND ARE OPEN ON OCT 2 ANYWAY

The state universities in Rajasthan won’t be observing a holiday for Gandhi Jayanti on October 2 this year.

The new holiday calendar issued by the office of Rajasthan governor Kalyan Singh, who is also the chancellor of all state universities, has listed 24 holidays for the academic year 2017-18. In October, there are holidays only for Moharram (October 1) and Diwali (October 13-21).

The calendar, incidentally, has declared holidays on the birth anniversaries of Ramdev (folk deity of Rajasthan), Guru Nanak, BR Ambedkar, Lord Mahavira and Maharana Pratap.

The holiday list was sent to 12 state universities two months ago. Some have already adopted it, while the rest will follow suit when their respective governing bodies meet next.

The Raj Bhawan spokesperson, when asked about the development, said, “October 2 holiday has not been declared in the state government’s higher education department. Raj Bhawan has issued the holiday calendar for the universities according to the gazetted holiday calendar issued by the state government.”

Higher education minister Kiran Maheshwari said the department did not declare Gandhi Jayanti a holiday merely because all schools, colleges and universities of the state observe celebrations and are open.

BJP-ruled Rajasthan had earlier drawn criticism for sidelining Mahatma Gandhi from history textbooks in schools and for giving more prominence to Hindutva ideologue VD Savarkar, an accused in Gandhi’s assassination who was later acquitted.