This is with reference to Samir's recent post on Sonal Shah and Ekal Vidyalaya's. Quote:' In the Sonal Shah issue, it was clearly shown via a TOI article, that Ekal Vidyalaya is into religious brainwashing, and spreading hatred against Christians'
Here are some articles on the working of Ekal Vidyalaya's. Excerpts: the Union Human Resources Development Ministry’s significant decision to stop grants to ‘Ekal Vidyalayas’ (one-teacher schools) run by the so-called Friends of Tribal Society (FTS), in collaboration with the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), in the tribal belts of the country. The decision follows a study, which revealed that the FTS which was provided assistance by the erstwhile NDA Government since 1999-2000 under the "Innovative and Experimental Education Component of the Education Guarantee Scheme and Alternative & Innovative Education," was "misusing these funds and using the grants for creating disharmony amongst religious groups and creating a political cadre". Dr. Murli Manohar Joshi, a hard-core RSS ideologue, had been leading the HRD ministry during the Vajpayee Government. Soon after the UPA Government took office last year, the new HRD Ministry headed by Arjun Singh constituted a four-member committee, comprising Avdesh Kaushal, Dipak Malik, P Sudhir Kumar and K R Meena, to submit a report on the numerous complaints that public funds were being used by FTS to support "institutions — some of which masqueraded as non-governmental organisations —that promote perverted ideologies." Pending the probe, the HRD Ministry did not release grants to FTS in the last fiscal (2004-2005). Following the receipt of the probe report, the Ministry under Arjun Singh, a known RSS bet noire, has decided to stop funds and grants to FTS completely.The FTS main agenda was a systematic program to Hinduise primary education especially in States like Jharkhand where Christian missionaries have been working among tribals in remote distant tribal hamlets for long. "These funds were being diverted to generate hatred toward minorities, and condition the minds of children", it said. Citing an instance, the report says, during roll call in classrooms, students were made to respond with `Jai Shri Ram’, and only the names of Hindu Gods were used to teach English alphabet. For example, English booklet in Jharkhand teach the Class-II primary students thus: A for Arjun, B for Brahma, C for Cow, D for Dhruva,…G for Ganesh, H…for Hanuman,…J for Jambavan,…M for Mahadev,…O for Om,…R for Ram,…T for Temple, U for Uma. Ironically, the letters ‘E’, ‘F’, ‘Q’, ‘W’, ‘X’ and ‘Z’ simply does not exist in this booklet. For the FTS champions, these letters are not worthy enough for the tribal students to learn. Reason? No names of Hindu Gods beginning with these letters are readily available! Daily school-prayers are devoted each day to different Hindu Gods like Lord Shiva, Hanuman etc.: Aaj Somwar Hai, Shivji ka var hai; sache man se bhajan karenge, sabka bera par hai; aaj mangalwar hai, Hanumanji ka var hai.... The committee also found that names of many students "enrolled" in the Ekal Vidyalaya registers were simply copied from government-run schools nearby. In many places the committee found that the Ekal Vidyalaya school registers were identical copies of government schools functioning in the same village. Since it is physically impossible for the same students to attend both schools regularly, the EV registers existed were aimed at merely siphoning off grants. No reading or learning material was provided to students despite specific allocations to the FTS. If at all these were provided, it was through the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan and not the FTS, the report said. Interestingly, a base book (Khele, Kude, Nache, Gaye) for training teachers of EVs was written by one Rakesh Popli. He happened to be a member of the grants-in-aid committee of the HRD ministry that decided to which NGOs would be given funds for running these schools. The book contains Popli’s version of Birsa Munda’s life as a definite eye-opener to both our historians and educationists. Popli wrote: "Birsa studied in a missionary school; converted to Christianity; was made to eat beef and forced to cut his tuft in hostel; returned home upset; began worshipping tulsi, wore sacred thread; roamed in forests; struggled against missionaries, landlords and British government...arrested, slowly poisoned in jail." In addition, Popli’s book also contains a series of rhymes on cow, Ram-Sita and other Gods of Hindu pantheon. Apart from propagating communal education of hatred, EV teachers also participate in direct actions to promote the "Hindi-Hindu-Hindutva" ideology of Sangh Parivar. For instance, Manney Singh Kandiyan, an EV teacher at Tantnagar block of Singhbhum district in Jharkhand, frankly explained to the enquiry committee during their visit "how he, with his other colleagues, destroyed a half-built church in 2002". Kandiyan also told the inquiry team that charges against him were dropped at the behest of the ruling party. The Committee, in particular, noted that the FTS and the Bharatiya Janata Party got foreign funds in the name of tribal education, and suggested that these sources of funding, too, be put under the scanner as they were being used for a divisive agenda. Christianity was not the lone target of Hindutva hate-campaign during the NDA ruling period. At a time when millions of public funds were siphoned off in the name of non-formal education to tribal students, the same Hindutva forces systematically unleashed an orchestrated campaign against Muslim madrassas throughout the country. Despite harping upon the convenient ISI charge against the Muslim madrasas, the NDA ruling period came to a close without providing any convincing evidence in support of these fallacious allegations. http://www.sabrang.com/news/2005/yg/31may05.htm Here is an article on the funding of Ekal Vidyalaya's by the VHPA with which Sonal Shah was actively associated as a core committee member. http://www.diasporic-hindu-nationalism.info/w/index.php?title=Sonal_Shah_and_Hindu_Extremism:_A_Factsheet Here is an article which was prophetic about the violence in Orissa. It appeared in the Tehelka magazine of Jan 19, 2008. http://www.tehelka.com/story_main37.asp?filename=Ne190108next_stop.asp Regards, Marshall <http://www.sabrang.com/news/2005/yg/31may05.htm>
