After Gita shlokas, now Gayatri Mantra must in Haryana schools

PTI PTI

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in Haryana has decided to add recital of ‘Gayatri Mantra’ — a hymn from religious scripture Rigveda — in prayers in all schools across the state.

State education minister Ram Bilas Sharma said the decision was taken after a meeting with school principals, teachers and other stakeholders on Friday. “The government would issue a notification on Tuesday (February 27),” he said.

Sharma added that including Gita shlokas in school syllabus soon after the formation of the government had yielded positive results. To a query on whether this was saffronisation of education, the minister said, “The sun’s first rays are saffron and the Tricolour’s first colour is saffron. What is wrong with saffron? We are not allergic to this colour,” he said.

He added, “Gayatri Mantra is not about any religion, in particular. It is a prayer that urges the almighty to enable us to imbibe all good values from all directions. I do not think anybody should have any problem with it.” Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar has said the decision was taken to increase the level of education, ethics, and culture in the education system. “The education department considered a lot of things before taking this decision,” said Khattar.

SRINAGAR: CHANDIGARH:

allocation in 2018 was in keeping with the convention and he was assigned an “earmarked seat along with party chiefs of all political parties”. His seat was changed from fifth to sixth row to ensure an aisle seat based on SPG inputs for suitability of escape route/contingency for an SPG protectee. The query categorically states that there was “no breach of protocol in earmarking of seats”.

It also says that BJP presidents were assigned 11th and 10th row seats during the parade in 2013 and 2014 when the United Progressive Alliance government was in power.