Page 41 - Education World September 2021

CAN THIS MAN REVIVE INDIA’S

Dharmendra Pradhan (centre) with education ministers of state Annpurna Devi Yadav & Dr. Subhas Sarkar: arduous mission

Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) providing subsi- with BJP, believes that Pradhan’s good track record in the
dised cooking gas cylinders to over 200 million socio-ec- petroleum and natural gas and skills development minis-
onomically underprivileged households. Not a few media tries makes him the best person to implement the Nation-
pundits believe that success of the Ujjwala scheme contrib- al Education Policy (NEP) 2020. “Over 80 percent of the
uted substantially to the BJP’s sweeping victory in General country’s annual education budget is spent by state govern-
Election 2019, and in the UP legislative assembly election ments. With his experience of the vocational skills develop-
held shortly thereafter. ment ministry and good people management skills, Prad-
“Dharmendra Pradhan is a rising star of the BJP who hanji is likely to persuade state governments to cooperate
enjoys the confidence of prime minister Narendra Modi and with the Centre to implement NEP 2020,” says Bhatt, who
Union home minister Amit Shah who call the shots in the also spiritedly defends the party on television talk shows.
BJP/NDA government. During his tenure in the petroleum However, Pradhan’s promotion to the Union educa-
and natural gas ministry, Pradhan did a fairly good job of tion ministry is likely to prove an arduous mission for this
implementing the Ujjwala scheme which required a large relatively young (52) and energetic minister who earned
number within the middle class to surrender their gas cylin- plaudits in his capacity as junior minister of entrepreneur-
der subsidies to enable the distribution of highly-subsidised ship and skills development (2017-2019). For the simple
cylinders to bottom-of-pyramid households. Undoubtedly, reason that human capital development, and particularly
he has programme implementation capabilities. But on the modernisation of India’s moribund education system, has
downside, as a former ABVP president, he has a strong con- never been a priority of the BJP and especially of the Rash-
nect with the RSS and I doubt if he will be able to overhaul triya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the shadowy ideological
and modernise India’s moribund education system,” says and cultural mentor organisation of the party. It’s worth
veteran Delhi-based journalist Ajoy Bose (Patriot, Sun- noting that the RSS runs its own Vidya Bharati schools
day, Sunday Observer and The Guardian, UK). nationwide whose number is estimated at 12,820 formal
Although media pundit and BJP Rajya Sabha MP Swa- and 11,500 informal schools with an aggregate enrolment
pan Dasgupta mysteriously declined to endorse him, Dr. of 3.5 million children (2019). In addition, several RSS-
Geeta Bhatt, director of Delhi University’s Non-Collegiate affiliate organisations such as VHP, ABVP (Akhil Bharatiya
Women Education Board and “ideologically connected” Vidyarthi Parishad) and BKS (Bharatiya Kisan Sangh) col-

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