Bengal wants to open 1,000 RSS-run schools in a year, says CM Suvendu Adhikari

West Bengal wants to open at least 1,000 schools run by Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh’s education wing Vidya Bharati within a year, Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari said on Thursday. The schools would be established in every district, municipality and panchayat, he said.

The RSS is the parent organisation of the Bharatiya Janata Party.

Speaking at an event to mark the 74th anniversary of Vidya Bharati in Kolkata, Adhikari also threatened to stop government aid for schools if they refused to sing the full version of Vande Mataram, The Telegraph reported.

“I told them that government aid would stop,” the newspaper quoted him as saying. “Then they budged, but only partially. They stood up, but did not move their lips. Then I told them that lips must move as well.”

The chief minister urged Vidya Bharati to set up more schools in Murshidabad and South 24 Parganas, alleging that “more anti-national activities take place” in the districts, The Times of India reported.

He accused the previous Trinamool Congress government of “polluting” the educational institutions and urged Vidya Bharati to take the responsibility for imparting “nationalistic learning”.

He also said that Bharatiya Jana Sangh founder Shyama Prasad Mookerjee’s slogan of “One Nation, One Constitution, One Flag, One Leader” should be applied to the education department as well.

Mookerjee is among the ideologues of the BJP and was the founder of...

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