New Delhi, March 31— Congress leader Sonia Gandhi has accused the Modi government of centralising power, commercialising education, and communalising textbooks, calling it a “carnage” of India’s public education system.
In an article titled The ‘3Cs’ That Haunt Indian Education Today published in The Hindu, Gandhi claimed that the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 conceals the government’s “profound indifference” to the education of India’s youth.
“The Union Government’s track record over the last decade shows it is only concerned with centralising power, outsourcing education to the private sector, and communalising textbooks, curriculum, and institutions,” she wrote.
Gandhi alleged that the government has coerced states into implementing the PM Schools for Rising India (PM-SHRI) scheme by withholding grants under the Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA). She also criticised the draft 2025 University Grants Commission (UGC) guidelines as “draconian,” claiming they sideline state governments in the appointment of vice-chancellors in state universities.
On commercialisation, the Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson said the poor are being pushed out of public education into expensive, under-regulated private schools. She also criticised the Higher Education Financing Agency (HEFA) for replacing block grants in higher education, calling it part of the government’s privatisation push.
Gandhi accused the government of “indoctrinating hatred” by revising National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) textbooks, alleging that sections on Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination, Mughal India, and the Preamble to the Constitution were removed.
She claimed leadership roles in premier institutions like IITs and IIMs are being handed to “pliant ideologues.”
“This carnage of India’s public education system must end,” Gandhi asserted, calling for a reversal of the “three Cs” haunting Indian education.
