By Aditya Aamir
Atheists have no business poking their nose in the affairs of god and his flock of whatever religious denomination. But a couple of the agnostic have done just that – they have mounted an attack on Kendriya Vidyalayas for starting the day by singing the Sanskrit hymn Asato Ma Sadgamya and ending the day with another Sanskrit prayer.
The duo has filed a PIL in the Supreme Court against the practice. On January 10, the Supreme Court issued notices to the Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan (KVS), which runs KVs, and the Union government asking them to respond to the petition.
One of the two godless men is a teacher in a Kendriya Vidyalaya in Sagar district of Madhya Pradesh. The other is a once god-fearing man who dumped god for Marxist floss, which is now out of fashion worldwide except in Kerala Tripura, Cuba and Kim Jong Un’s Korea.
The Kendriya Vidyalaya teacher is the atheist, who wants to see the decimation of god from central schools. But he is scared of losing his job, which he will lose, if he takes the Kendriya Vidyalaya Sanghathan (KVS) to court. So he has outsourced the chore to impose his atheism on students to his Jabalpur-based lawyer friend, who answers to the name Jayant Shah, the one-time Bhakt who crossed over to where the divine does not command devotion.
The teacher is the hardcore atheist who from day one of employment at a Kendriya Vidyalaya started his harangue against the Sanskrit hymns, which he says kills the spirit of scientific inquiry and stunts the intellect of students.
But it is Vinayak Shah who has taken KVS to the Supreme Court. The teacher stays behind the scenes, unseen like god, anonymous. KVS runs around 1000 Kendriya Vidyalayas across India. Besides being a communist, Shah is also a member of the Ambedkarite group, Backward and Minority Community Employees’ Federation (Bamcef).
He has challenged a set of KVS regulations, compiled in 2012 and implemented from 2013. One of the regulations demands morning assemblies to begin with Asato Ma…and end the day with another Sanskrit verse Om Saha Navavatu or May God Protect Us Both.
Both the hymns have been sung for decades in Kendriya Vidyalayas. Shah’s godless petition argues that the hymns are “based on Hindu religion” and that their compulsory chanting is “religious instruction”. He says they violate Article 28 of the Constitution, which says “no religious instruction shall be provided in any educational institution run with State funds.”
Shah’s PIL states the practice “creates a lot of obstacles in developing a scientific temperament” and students “develop an inclination towards seeking refuge from the Almighty instead of developing a practical outcome towards the obstacles and hurdles faced in everyday life and spirit of enquiry and reform seems to be lost.”
Shah’s PIL objects to the provision that all students, irrespective of their faith and belief, have to perform it in a respectful manner “by closing their eyes and folding their hands.” The second hymn, as well as the prayer in Hindi, invokes god.
The atheist lawyer says “parents and children of the minority communities as well as the atheist who do not agree with this system of prayer such as agnostic, sceptic, rationalist would find the imposition of this prayer constitutionally impermissible” though to date not a single parent, who is all of those or one of those, has complained. In fact, if anyone is challenging or violating the Constitution, it is Shah by sowing seeds of communal discord in young minds.
The busybody has also challenged the practice because it “violates the citizens’ right to freedom of speech and expression and to profess, practise and propagate religion.”
The “basically, I am an atheist” Shah, was a member of the All India Democratic Students’ Organisation and even held a post in its Sagar district branch. There he got friendly with the teacher. A lawyer introduced him to the Ambedkarites. In a dozen years Shah had given up on god.
His teacher friend joined the Sagar Kendriya Vidyalaya in 2015. He wore his atheism on his sleeve and he started rebelling as soon as he entered the school. He refused to join the prayer meeting. And he started telling students there was no god. Then he tried to stop a Saraswati puja on the school premises. He removed the idol. The man was on a mission, which finally took his views to the Supreme Court via Shah. (IPA Service)
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