[Asian Age - 28 February 2005]
Next, an RSS varsity
by Narayan Bareth
Jaipur, Feb. 26: After setting up a number of educational institutions in Rajasthan, the RSS is now ready to get its own Hindutva university. The BJP government has issued a letter of intent for the self-financing university.
The new university is to be set up at Jamdoli, surrounded by small hills on the outskirts of Jaipur, where a huge tract of land has been demarcated for the purpose. The Sangh had already named it Keshav Vidyapeeth Vishwavidyalaya. According to sources in the RSS, the university would award post-graduate degrees.
The RSS had already established an educational centre at Jamdoli which hosted two high-level RSS Pratinidihi Sabhas. Last year, a national-level meeting of RSS leaders was held in Jamdoli.
Rajasthan education minister Ghanshyam Tiwari has directed his department to provide all help needed for the project. According to sources, the university will be a model institution and will implement Sangh Parivar ideology. The courses will be based on cultural nationalism and science.
According to sources, the courses would incorporate Ayurveda, Vedic science, Yoga and medical science. The RSS is planning to make the university "a model" for other institutions. Commenting on the new university, Rajasthan Congress joint secretary Sanyam Lodha said, "It is wrong to have a high-level institution based on religion. It is matter of concern for us."
The Sangh already runs a large number of schools, known as Adarsh Vidya Mandirs, in Rajasthan and over three lakh students pass out of these institutions annually. These schools have their own syllabi besides the one prescribed by the government and also teach students about karsevaks who lost their lives during the Ayodhya Mandir movement.
After Gujarat, the Sangh is focusing on Rajasthan. The Sangh Parivar has split Rajasthan into three separate administrative units. It had set up its headquarters at Chittorgarh in Mewar, a tribal belt, and Jodhpur and Jaipur have separate headquarters.
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