Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Monday strongly defended the National Education Policy (NEP), calling it the “Indianisation” of the country’s education system. His remarks came in response to Congress Parliamentary Party (CPP) chairperson Sonia Gandhi’s recent critique of the NEP, where she accused the Centre of promoting centralisation, commercialisation, and communalisation through the policy.
“I think this (NEP) is the Indianisation of the education system of India,” Fadnavis told reporters in Nagpur.
Responding to Sonia Gandhi’s criticism, he argued that replacing the colonial-era Macaulay education system with an India-centric approach should be welcomed by all.
“If the education policy that Macaulay introduced to enslave our country is being replaced with an Indianised system, no one should have a problem with that. Any patriot would support it. I think Sonia Gandhi ji should learn more about it and fully support the Indianisation of the Indian education system,” he added.
Meanwhile, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh also addressed concerns over language-related disputes in India, urging an end to divisions based on linguistic differences. He reaffirmed the BJP’s commitment to protecting Hindi as well as all Indian languages.
“Some people are unnecessarily creating controversy over Tamil and Hindi languages. However, the BJP is fully committed to protecting Hindi and all other Indian languages. There is no competition between them—rather, a spirit of cooperation. Hindi strengthens all Indian languages, and all Indian languages strengthen Hindi,” Singh said at an event commemorating Tamil warrior queen Rani Velu Nachiyar.
His remarks come amid ongoing tensions between the Tamil Nadu government, led by Chief Minister MK Stalin, and the Centre over the three-language formula proposed in the NEP 2020 and the delimitation exercise.
