By IANS,
Gandhinagar : Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi used Teacher’s Day Friday to speak out against terrorism and press for an anti-terror law – and listening to him this time were millions of children all over the state.
“Terrorism is anti-human. There are no ifs and buts in condemning it. All have to condemn it in one voice. Can there be a bigger sin than killing people in hospitals?” Modi said, addressing a gathering of 100-odd students at Town Hall here.
He was replying to a question by Sanjay Balani, a student who had come from Rajkot to hear Modi. The chief minister had a target audience of millions of students in schools and colleges across the state as the programme was telecast live by a channel of national broadcaster Doordarshan.
Referring to the Gujcoca, an anti-terror law passed by the Gujarat assembly that is waiting for presidential approval, Modi said such a law already exists in Maharashtra.
“Do you know why your mother locks the almirah?” he asked the children. “Is it to stop a thief from entering your house and robbing money and valuables? No. If a thief wants, he can take away the whole almirah and even if your mother uses four locks it won’t help in stopping thief. The lock is put because your mother wants her children not to steal the money – Re.1 or Rs.2 for buying panipuri or ice-cream.”
“Once stealing becomes a habit, the child is lost, its future is lost. Similarly Gujcoca is needed to safeguard the state from any of its citizen going astray,” Modi said. “This is what I told the prime minister when I recently met him at Delhi.”
Ahmedabad, the principal city of Gujarat, had suffered serial terror blasts in July that killed at least 56 people and injured over 200.
Asked if the National Cadet Corps (NCC) could be fine-tuned to fight terrorism, Modi said the two were different issues. The NCC inculcates discipline and gives a broad perspective to life.
“I was fortunate to get NCC training in my childhood,” he said. “I benefited. Due to my discipline, many may have faced inconvenience,” he said half in jest.
Perpetrators of terror can be thwarted in their evil deeds if one is alert to his surroundings, he said.
When another student, Shraddhaba Gopalsinh, asked what he was doing to allay the fear of examination among children, Modi said there was tremendous pressure from parents to score high marks. This has to change, he said.
“Last year I requested Gujarat University to allow students to write the exams with books. What’s wrong in that?” he asked. If indeed a child has not read the books, how will he be able to search the correct answer?” Modi asked.
“I am only asking for books to be allowed and not guides. What are we testing – ‘yaad shakti’ (memory) or ‘samajh shakti (understanding)? We are only testing the grasping power of the students.”
“All these changes may not come about in 2010; but they will certainly come one day,” Modi added.
When Trushaba Rathod, another student, asked him if he was thinking of giving a boost to English medium schools, Modi said in a roundabout way that educationists and experts had agreed that education given in one’s mother tongue was the best. This was accepted universally, he said.
However, in India a child should also learn one or two languages plus the world language, that is English, he said. Those who learn Hindi are the highest in the world. In this global world, not knowing English is also not good, he said.
The 21st century is Asia’s century. An Indian language will come to the fore. So too will the languages of Japan and China, he said.
Before getting into the question-answer session, Modi said his government in the year of the “Nirogi-Bal varsh” was laying emphasis on the healthy child. He urged cultivating the habit of cleanliness among children. If the individual and the family benefit, so will the state, Modi said.
Students were also administered the “Swarnim Sankalp” a golden resolution that Modi has earlier talked about. The principals of Gujarat education board schools were asked to distribute photocopies of the pledge to their students.
The opposition Congress flayed the Modi speech as a misuse of the state machinery.