Modi govt diffused education by malicious controversies: Ahmad

Congress today took a jibe at the Narendra Modi government saying diffusion of education through "myopic" and "malicious" controversies have been the hallmarks of it in one year of power.

"Rather than solidifying the well established educational structure of India, HRD ministry under Smriti Irani has spent more time demolishing institutions of prestige and downsizing highly motivated educationists," party's national spokesperson Shakeel Ahmad said here in a press conference.

"Intentionally induced ‘institutional paralysis’ and diffusion of education through myopic, malicious and myriad controversies have been the hallmarks of one year of Modi government," he added.

The Congress General Secretary also slammed Irani for "politically motivated" appointments at prominent capacities in education sector saying that under-qualified Sangh Pariwar loyalists have been made the heads of premier institutions in Modi government.

"HRD Minister and masters in Sangh pariwar are playing with the future of our young generation. The under-qualified who used to write articles in RSS mouthpiece- Panchjanya and Orgniser - have been appointed as head of premier educational institutions in the country," he said.

All these prove that the destruction of education sector has started in the first year of Modi regime. No government in the history has harmed the country like they did, he added.

Criticising Prime Minster Narendra Modi for his remarks during recent foreign trips, the Congress leader said it is unfortunate that a Prime Minister has insulted his country on foreign soil.

"PM goes out of the country as the representative of India, not as a political leader or representative of any political party. It is very shameful that the PM is insulting our nation on foreign soil,” he said.

"In Shanghai and Korea he said people felt they have committed sin of being born in India. Modi should have been asked what sin he had committed that he took birth before 2014," he said.

Referring to Modi’s comment of transforming 'Scam India to Skill India’, he said it is not the tradition of Congress to take the internal politics to international forum and insult the country’s dignity.

Without naming former BJP president Late Bangaru Laxman, he said, "BJP president was caught on camera accepting bribe in a defence deal. I don’t want to take his name because it is not our tradition to drag the names of the deceased...none of our minister had ever said in foreign countries that BJP leaders are corrupted and their president takes bribe."

"(Gautam) Adani is the de facto Foreign Minister of the country...We definitely say it is being written that Sushma Swaraj is the external affairs minister but I think the actual foreign minister is Adani," he added.

"Except few single tours, Swaraj or other political leaders never accompanied PM in his foreign visits. Although Adani was seen with him in every visit," he said.Meanwhile, Ahmad also recalled lapses made by previous UPA government during Lok Sabha election which led to their defeat.

"…Why Congress was defamed in 2G scam. Raja Sahab (A Raja, then Telecommunication minister in UPA government) was not the minister of Congress, he was a UPA minister and belongs to DMK party...We accepted that the party failed to effectively communicate the achievements of the UPA government and rebut opposition's criticism of its failures," he said.

He, however, added Congress will not leave any stone unturned for effective communication now and will go to people with number of issues through media.