Madhya Pradesh Education Minister Jaibhan Singh Pawaiya ordered all government colleges, universities and offices to prominently display portraits of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Swami Vivekananda, reported the Hindustan Times. Disciplinary action will be taken against those who defy the order, the school education department said in a circular.
The circular asked government institutes to put up portraits of Mahatma Gandhi, Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar and President Pranab Mukherjee as well. The school education department has asked the institutes to collect the portraits from Information and Broadcasting Ministry’s photo department in Delhi. School authorities have said that the new initiative would be expensive for them as these portraits cost Rs 200 plus delivery charges, reported the English daily.
The Opposition said the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh was responsible for the decision. The Congress also accused the right-wing outfit of promoting Swami Vivekananda “as his ideology suits the RSS”. “In educational institutions, they should display portraits of Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan and Jawaharlal Nehru, who gave new direction to independent India, and great scientist APJ Abdul Kalam,” Congress spokesperson KK Mishra told the newspaper.
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