Sangh groups at Smriti door - Four-hour meet to lobby for key posts

"A group of RSS affiliates today met Union human resource development minister Smriti Irani over four hours and lobbied to get their nominees into key posts at premier educational institutions, sources said. Several central universities, IITs and IIMs as well as school boards and textbook publishers have vacancies at the top. Although none from the minister's office or the Sangh-affiliated organisations would officially confirm it, sources said the meeting discussed appointments and the new education policy.

Held at the minister's home, the meeting drew representatives from Sangh education wings Vidya Bharati and Bhartiya Shikshan Mandal, student arm Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, and teachers' body Rashtriya Shaikshik Mahasangh. Also present were members from the Samskrita Bharati, which promotes Sanskrit, and the Shiksha Bachao Andolan Samiti, led by Sangh ideologue Dinanath Batra, which had moved court against Wendy Doniger's The Hindus: An Alternative History and got Penguin India to withdraw it.

Sources said inputs were shared at the meeting on the new national education policy that Irani's ministry is expected to announce early next year. The delegates emphasised that the policy should instil "nationalism, pride and ancient Indian values in modern education". Irani has been nudged from the top to keep herself on the right side of the Sangh and its affiliates, sources said. They added that she would face a challenge balancing the demands of these competing organisations - each of which came with a wish list of candidates for key posts -since she is not from the Sangh and is not versed on its functioning..."