Kerala Minister slams VCs for endorsing 'anti-knowledge' agenda

NEW DELHI: Kerala Higher Education Minister R Bindu on Monday strongly criticised the participation of some university Vice Chancellors in "Gyan Sabha" organised by an RSS-linked group in Kochi, calling it a "disturbing alignment" with forces seeking to undermine the state's progressive academic legacy. In a sharply worded statement, Minister Bindu accused the Sangh Parivar of being fundamentally opposed to modern, inclusive higher education and warned that its efforts to exert ideological control over universities must be firmly resisted.

Her statement came a day after the Vice Chancellors of four universities in Kerala -- reportedly including one appointed by the Left government -- attended the national education conference ‘Gyan Sabha’, organised by the Shiksha Sanskriti Utthan Nyas and inaugurated by RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat in Kochi on Sunday.

"A modern higher education system that aligns with the needs of today's world is intolerable to the Sangh Parivar," Bindu alleged. "The so-called 'Gyan Sabha' is part of a larger, deeply regressive effort to turn Kerala's knowledge-driven society back towards Brahminical domination. To ignore this agenda is to deny history itself," she said. The Minister singled out certain Vice Chancellors, saying their involvement lent legitimacy to what she described as a "crude, anti-knowledge campaign" aimed at eroding academic freedom and silencing independent thought.

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Bindu slams VCs for promoting anti-intellectualism

"It may be a matter of pride for the RSS that the minds of some Vice Chancellors--who are supposed to lead knowledge creation--have been turned into stables of anti-intellectualism. But for Kerala, it is a matter of deep shame," she added. Minister Bindu warned that attempts to transform inclusive educational institutions into ideological training grounds for a Hindu Rashtra would not be tolerated.

For having colluded in chaining academic freedom and independent thought to the saffron stable, these Vice Chancellors will have to hang their heads in shame before the academic community for a long time to come, she said. "The youth and the academic community will expose the Sangh Parivar’s dangerous delusion that a crude army of ignorance can be built in Kerala. Enlightened by the true knowledge imparted by genuine teachers, the people of Kerala will cast into the dustbin the Sangh Parivar’s schemes that treat the darkness of ignorance as something to be celebrated," Bindu said.