New Delhi:

 Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Wednesday accused the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and Congress of conspiring to weaken India while questioning the intention behind the CPI (M)’s election manifesto promise to dismantle all nuclear weapons in the country.

Mr Singh also demanded to know the Congress’ stand on the issue and said that “talking about destroying our nuclear weapons is no less than playing with national security.”

“I want to ask Congress in particular what they have to say about this comment by CPIM. I want to ask them to clarify. CPIM says if they come to power, they will destroy all nuclear weapons. India’s first nuclear tests were conducted in 1974 by Indira Gandhi. The need arose because China had continuously been doing nuclear tests. And even Pakistan had begun its nuclear trials,” the defence minister said while addressing a public rally in Kerala’s Kasargod.

“Later, the Atal Bihar Vajpayee government conducted five successful nuclear tests and earned India the status of a nuclear power in the world. The Left and Congress want to weaken India,” he added.

The Communist Party of India (Marxist), which is part of the INDIA bloc, in its manifesto, which was released last week, has promised “complete elimination of nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction, including chemical and biological weapons.”

“At a time when India’s neighbouring countries are nuclear powers, talking about destroying our nuclear weapons is no less than playing with India’s national security. It is a very deep-rooted conspiracy to weaken the country,” Rajnath Singh said.

Attacking left parties, the Defence Minister said, “Once the public kicked the left party out of Tripura and Bengal, then there is no entry for them into power. Whether it is Congress or the Left Party, whenever they get exposed in public, their game is over. This is the reason that, whichever state they are kicked out of, the doors of that state are always closed for them.”

“Can you trust Congress and the LDF? Because in Kerala, both parties are fighting against each other, but in Delhi, the same Congress and Left do ‘Modiram matal’ (join hands) to increase friendship,” he added.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

CPI(M) State secretary M.V. Govindan. File
| Photo Credit: The Hindu

The ruling Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] has said that Kerala would reject the National Council for Educational Research and Training’s (NCERT) proposal to supplant India with Bharat in the social sciences curriculum for schools.

CPI(M) State Secretary M. V. Govindan told reporters in New Delhi that schools following the State syllabus would resist the NCERT’s move to inject “science, fact and history-denying Sangh Parivar rendition of India’s past into younger generations.

“Kerala school textbooks will cite the country’s name as India as articulated in Article I of the Constitution. They will dwell on subjects abandoned by the Sangh Parivar-led Central government, including Darwin’s theory of evolution, the Mughal empire, and the life, times and assassination of Mahatma Gandhi”, Mr. Govindan said.

Mr. Govindan said the formation of the anti-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) was the immediate provocation for the BJP’s move to supplant India with Bharat in school textbooks, official communication and public fora.

He said the Centre had suspiciously flip-flopped on its recent commitment to the Supreme Court that no circumstance warranted changing India’s official name to Bharat.

The CPI(M) and Congress in Kerala also found themselves on the same side of the India-Bharat debate.

On Wednesday, Congress Working Committee (CWC) member K.C. Venugopal objected to rejecting India for Bharat in school textbooks.

“For Congress, both names carry equal weight. However, one should not be at the cost of the other. The BJP is attempting to distort India’s history to suit its political ends”, he said.

The CPI(M) has also found a common cause with the Congress and the DMK governments in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. Both administrations have objected to the NCERT proposal. (Education is a subject in the concurrent list, allowing States to accept or reject NCERT proposals.)

C. I. Isaac, a retired history teacher and Padma Shri awardee who heads the NCERT panel for curriculum change, told a news channel in Dubai that it had not rejected the name India.

“Instead, the panel has proposed to make it statutory to teach Bharath in school curriculum. It is to instil self-respect in students and not to compel them to stop using the term India when referring to the country. The panel has also proposed displaying a framed copy of the constitution preamble in classrooms prominently”, Mr. Isaac said.

Meanwhile, the BJP in Kerala has encouraged the use of Bharat because it was “an emphatic rejection of the country’s colonial past”. RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat had recently urged citizens to use Bharat instead of India.