Kerala Education Minister V Sivankutty on Sunday said that the state government will resist pressure to create division along religious lines, flagging reports of schools in the state cancelling Christmas celebrations due to alleged pressure from Hindutva organisations linked to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, reported The Hindu.
The RSS is the parent organisation of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party at the Centre.
A row had erupted after reports emerged that some schools run by Hindutva organisations and a privately managed Hindu institution allegedly halted Christmas celebrations, Onmanorama reported.
However, the RSS and the management of the schools denied the allegations.
On Sunday, the state government warned that schools would not be allowed to be turned into “communal laboratories”, PTI reported. It also added that an “urgent inquiry” had been ordered.
Speaking to reporters, Sivankutty claimed that certain schools had returned money collected from students for Christmas celebrations under threat from Hindutva organisations in the “RSS-Sangh Parivar’s” orbit of influence, The Hindu reported.
“Several parents, students, and teachers complained to me,” the newspaper quoted the Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader as saying. “The government is treating the matter very seriously.”
He added that action was underway against the school managements that “abandoned Christmas celebrations under threats from the RSS”.
Sivankutty said that Kerala would not tolerate practices that divide people along religious lines.
The minister accused the RSS and its affiliates of seeking to expel the religious practices and celebrations of Christian and Muslim minorities from the state’s cultural life.
“The RSS is seeking to intertwine state holidays with religion to create communal schisms in society,” The Hindu quoted him as saying. “It has zeroed in on Kerala’s schools, erroneously reckoning they are soft targets for their divisive purposes.”
He added that no one will be permitted to “introduce the north Indian models that divide people on the basis of religion or belief in Kerala’s educational institutions”, Onmanorama reported.
Schools play a crucial role in fostering unity among children, irrespective of caste or religion, the minister said, adding that attempts to inject divisive ideas into educational spaces would not be accepted.
“All schools, whether aided or unaided, are bound by the Constitution of India, education rules and laws of the country,” Onmanorama quoted Sivankutty as saying. He added that institutions have a duty to uphold secular values.
Government and private schools in the state also operate under the Kerala Educational Rules, he said.
Kerala has a glorious legacy of assimilating diverse cultures and traditions without questioning them, the CPI(M) leader said.
“The government will resist any attempt to transform schools into stifling compartments of religious segregation by banning celebrations frowned upon by the RSS or any fundamentalist group,” The Hindu quoted him as saying.
He called for a broader ideological battle against the RSS.
Christmas event cancelled in Haridwar hotel
In Uttarakhand’s Haridwar, a hotel run by the state tourism department cancelled a Christmas celebration on the banks of river Ganga after protests called by the Ganga Sabha, which administers the Har-ki-Pauri ghat, The Times of India reported on Monday.
The hotel had organised an “Experience Christmas” event on December 24. The manager of the hotel, Navaneet Singh Naula, told the newspaper that the management had organised games for children on the occasion of Christmas.
He added that this was “misunderstood” as a celebration of the festival.
Priests from the Ganga Sabha described it as an “anti-Hindu event which cannot be allowed to be in an establishment on the banks of the holy river”.
Ujjwal Pandit, the secretary of the Ganga Sabha, claimed that he had his entire community’s support against the event. “It is against the holy city’s tradition as well as Haridwar municipal bylaws to organise an event of this nature along the holy river,” he added.
Naula told The Times of India that the event was cancelled to avoid a controversy.
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