Amidst a row over Prime Minister Narendra Modi's planned interaction with students on Teachers' Day, human resources development minister Smriti Irani on Monday said that the participation of students in the event was "voluntary".
The Centre's move has kicked up a controversy with opposition Congress and others, including BJP allies MDMK and PMK, slamming the government.
Read: Teachers' Day can't be Guru Utsav, say BJP's TN allies
Irani, however, rejected reports that the government was celebrating the day as 'guru utsav', saying it was the name of an essay competition and wondered if those criticising her were doing it deliberately for political reasons.
She stressed that September 5, the birth anniversary of former president late S Radhakrishnan, will continue to be celebrated as Teachers' Day.
"This particular activity is voluntary in nature. If it is being politicised, then I would say it is regrettable," Irani told reporters when asked about the objections raised in some states over the Centre's directive to them to ensure students' participation in the event.
Modi is to give a pep-talk to about 1,000 selected students at the Manekshaw Auditorium in Delhi on September 5.
The programme, which will see Modi interact with the students and take questions via video conferencing facility, will be beamed live to over 18 lakh government and private schools in the country through Doordarshan and education channels.
The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), which sent out a circular, has directed schools to make arrangements for the event between 2.30 pm to 5 pm on September 5.
Modi is scheduled to address students and hold an interactive question-answer session from 3 pm to 4.45 pm.
Read: Delhi pvt schools unhappy over PM live speech order
The government has asked the National Informatics Centre (NIC) and Isro (Indian Space Research Organization) to help schools organise the live event.
Ministry officials said as Edusat-based interactive teaching is operational in several engineering colleges and distance education centres, it should not be difficult for the government to hold a successful event.
Congress leader Manish Tewari termed the renaming of the day merely a "packaging" exercise and said the government is trying to "change packaging and labelling and then trying to pass them off as innovative initiatives".
Two of BJP's Tamil Nadu allies joined DMK in opposing the move, with PMK terming it as a discreet attempt to impose Sanskrit.
Since schools usually close by afternoon, a section of school principals has also questioned the timing of the Modi-student interaction.
via Top Stories - Google News http://ift.tt/1nlXnSz

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