Tags:
Journalism of Courage
Targeted by HRD Minister Arjun Singh for opposing his quota plans through a 6-2 decision, the National Knowledge Commission (NKC) today criticised the minister for his remarks against the panel.
NKC’s member-convener Pratap Bhanu Mehta said: “Arjun Singh’s claim that Knowledge Commission and the chairman did not know of the Constitutional amendment is absolutely preposterous. In fact, most members have written on the subject.”
“He is obfuscating the issue. My view is that even the Constitutional amendment is an enabling legislation. And it doesn’t require the government to extend quotas in institutions,” Mehta said.
NKC’s vice-chairman Dr P M Bhargava, one of the two members to support the quota proposal, said: “His (Arjun Singh’s) casting aspersions on the entire Knowledge Commission is totally unwarranted, unbecoming and incorrect.”
Referring to Singh’s criticism of NKC, he added that the “government at the highest level must learn to cope with differences of opinion.”
Bhargava said that NKC had shown “tremendous intellectual honesty in accommodating both points of view”.
Ashok Ganguly, another NKC member, said: “We have already told the PM about our views and he has given us a patient hearing.”
Referring to Singh’s criticism, Ganguly said: “I don’t have to match such comments. I am not a politician.”
