The Supreme Court on Monday
issued a notice to the central government on the issue of introducing
Jyotir Vigyan (Astrology) courses in various universities.
The court has asked the Centre to reply why courses based on Vedic
rituals should be introduced in Indian universities.
The University Grants Commission had issued a circular asking various
universities to introduce astrology and Vedic ritual courses like
Karam Kand and Purohitya, which train a person to be a priest.
The UGC move has come under severe flak from sscientists and academicians
all over India.
A scientist from Andhra Pradesh, PM Bhargava, had filed a writ petition
against Vedic courses in Supreme Court.
He had earlier filed a writ petition in Andhra Pradesh high court,
which had dismissed his petition observing that there could be two
opinions among experts on whether Vedic courses were scientific
or not.
The petitioner's lawyer, Prashant Bhushan, talking about the grounds
on which they moved the apex court said, "All the scientists in
this country are unanimous in saying that the Vedic courses have
no
scientific basis. Further, including such courses in the scientific
curriculum would send a wrong message to the people."
Bhushan added that the move to introduce such courses was designed
to promote the Hindutva agenda of the government.
From a legal point of view, Bhushan contended that since the right
to education is a fundamental right, using funds allocated for 'real'
education to promote Vedic education would have an adverse impact
on the general education being provided.
The move to introduce Vedic course had come under severe flak on
Sunday in a meeting of various non-NDA parties.
A resolution was also adopted at the meeting, which stressed the
need for the education policy to be consistent with secular, scientific
and democratic values enshrined in the Constitution of India.
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