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Katju objects to ‘Gita’ in schools
Press Council of India Chairman Markandey Katju
Image Courtesy : ndtv.com
Former Supreme Court judge Markandey Katju had objected to a Supreme Court judge´s statement that “Gita and Mahabharat” should be taught in schools, saying this was against “India´s secular feature and Constitution” and will do it “great harm”. Supreme Court judge Justice A R Dave had recently said Indians should revert to their ancient traditions and texts such as Mahabharat and Bhagavad Gita and they should be introduced to children at an early age. “Somebody who is very secular so called secular will not agree Had I been the dictator of India, I would have introduced Gita and Mahabharata in class one,” he had said in Ahmedabad.
Katju, the Chairman of Press Council of India, said, “I totally disagree with Justice Dave´s statement that Gita and Mahabharat should be made compulsory in schools. “In a country of such diversity as ours, nothing of this kind should be compelled or imposed, as that is against our nation’s secular feature and Constitution,” he said in a statement. He said Muslims and Christians may not want their children to be taught these books and questioned if their children yet be forced to read them.
But suprizingly he did not comment on Justice Dave’s aspiration to be ´the dictator of India´.
