CPI stages black flag protest in Chennai against TN Governor, Vice President over VC meeting

Chennai (Tamil Nadu) [India], April 25 (ANI) - The Communist Party of India (CPI) on Friday staged a black flag protest in Chennai against Tamil Nadu Governor RN Ravi and Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar over their participation in a Vice Chancellors' meeting held in the Nilgiris district.
Dhankhar addressed the Inaugural Session of the Conference of Vice-Chancellors of State, Central and Private Universities of Tamil Nadu at Raj Bhavan in Udhagamandalam today. He called the National Education Policy (NEP) game-changing, and said that the policy aligns with the "civilizational ethos" and it is a policy for the nation.
Dhankhar stated that, considering inputs from the broadest spectrum of stakeholders, there was an evolution of the National Education Policy.
"This policy aligns with our civilisational ethos. It gives primacy to Indian languages. It encourages multi-disciplinary learning. It envisions education as the development of a person and not just employability. The most significant aspect of NEP is it allows students to learn in their mother tongue. It has got us out of the colonial regime," Dhankhar said.
"NEP is game-changing. But the problem is those in academic institutions are not full aware of this policy. I ask them to do a thorough study of NEP to realise its intent and purpose. So that we reap its harvest. I wish to indicate NEP is a government policy. It is a policy for the nation. And therefore it is time for us all to adopt it, understand it, execute it and reap the fruit," he added.
Dhankhar said that the languages of the nation are its pride and legacy. "Our languages are our pride and legacy. Go to any country you may not find what we have here. Sanskrit, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Hindi, Bangla etc.., are gold mines of literature and knowledge," he said.
The Rajya Sabha Chairman said that the national interest is supreme.
"I know my present position here is only to speak on education. I now rose the importance of education is a great equaliser. It can contribute to the rise of a nation and even reduce enmity. I must comment that RN Ravi has taken a thoughtful initiative in 2021 to have bought this new conference of Vice Chancellors. A presence of mind has brought us to the fourth series and this will be very fruitful for the education institutions," he added.
Dhankhar praised Tamil Nadu Governor RN Ravi and said that he is doing this because he took oath on the Indian constitution in front of the President.
"He took the oath as Governor to preserve, protect and defend the Indian constitution at any point. We need to nurture our education ecosystem in the backdrop of our historical legacy. The gurukul concept is sublime. There was free access to those who were yearning for knowledge and the guru took everyone under his fold. That is our legacy. I assert that accessibility and affordability of higher education is important and also its quality. It is the national priority," Dhankhar asserted.
"My suggestion to Governor Ravi is that certain things must not be taken lightly. Those who have not come must be having a situation, we must be understanding, appreciate everybody's presence, and we must appreciate everybody's absence also," Dhankhar said.
The three-language row has created a stalemate between the centre and the Tamil Nadu government over the implementation of the National Education Policy (NEP) of 2020, with Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin earlier labelling the three-language policy as a "saffronise policy" aimed at promoting Hindi rather than developing India. He alleged that the policy threatens to destroy Tamil Nadu's education system.
The Conference aims to have detailed deliberations and interactive sessions on a gamut of issues covering Implementation of National Credit Framework, Academic collaborations among Universities, use of Artificial Intelligence to maximise learning outcomes, financial management in educational institutions, research excellence, promoting entrepreneurship, capacity building for learners, creating wealth through Intellectual Property (IP) and careers in rehabilitation of differently abled persons. (ANI)