Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Sunday said that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led central government’s National Education Policy (NEP) in 2020 was a “weapon to communalise” and it was introduced to “to push a particular ideology into the Indian system”. 

On a three-day tour to poll-bound Tamil Nadu, the former Congress president slammed Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government over a range of issues – including the India-China border standoff and rising fuel prices – and sought to connect with the people on an emotional level. 

During an event at the St Xavier College in Tamil Nadu’s Tirunelveli district, Gandhi said that all policies on education should be introduced after deliberations with teachers and students. 

“Unfortunately, this was not done,” PTI quoted Gandhi as saying. The NEP also gave too much power in the hands of the Centre and it will damage the country’s education system, Gandhi added. 

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He stated that that the NEP had a positive aspect of flexibility, but it was a “weapon to communalise, to push a particular ideology into the Indian system and that is why I do not like it”. 

He also favoured introducing more scholarships to help poor children with their education and stressed on improving women empowerment. 

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To a demand on bringing back education to the state list of the Constitution from the concurrent category, he said, “I don’t know we will look into it.”

Centralising everything was a bad idea and decentralisation and facilitating access to education from all corners of the country were fundamental, he said.

In 1976, the then Congress government led by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi shifted education, which was previously a state subject, to the concurrent list allowing Centre to legislate on the matter besides the states.

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Gandhi also described PM Modi as a “formidable enemy” who crushed his opponents and vowed to defeat him. 

“We are fighting a formidable enemy (Modi). We are fighting an enemy that is dominating the money in this country. We are fighting an enemy that is crushing its opponents. But we have done this before. We have defeated a much bigger enemy (British) than this new enemy that has come,” he said. 

“Who is Narendra Modi in comparison to the British empire? nobody. People of this country sent the British empire back and in the same way we will send Narendra Modi back to Nagpur (RSS headquarters in Maharashtra),” he added.

Congress is an ally of the DMK in Tamil Nadu and BJP is a partner of the ruling AIADMK. A single-phase election for the 234 constituencies is scheduled for April 6.