Love thy…Ma, Paa

Moving on from the textbook battles of Akbar and Maharana Pratap; and stretching beyond Surya Namaskar; next on the to do list of the Rajasthan Education Department is celebrating Valentine’s Day in government schools.

Next year onwards, the day of love would be celebrated as matra-pitra poojan samman diwas; a day for paying respects to parents. This would be done next year onwards, as an effort to counter Valentine’s Day, announced minister of state for primary education, Vasudev Devnani in the state assembly.

Addressing the house Devnani said, “In today’s times there is need to instill a sense of respect for parents among school children. The first love of a person’s life should be parents. Others come after that. The event would serve this purpose,” Devnani told the house. He also told the house that teachers’ training camps would be named after Deendayal Upadhyay.

TRYST WITH CONTROVERSIES

This is not the first time Devnani has courted controversy. There was much outrage among the minority community over his decision to introduce Surya Namaskar in schools. He invited the ire of the Congress by removing a chapter on Jawaharlal Nehru and adding one on Emergency. There was opposition from historians and academicians when the …read more