Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Monday trained guns on the BJP, alleging that the saffron party did not want the children on farmers and labourers to learn English and progress with the world.
Speaking at a Bharat Jodo Yatra rally in Rajasthan’s Alwar, Rahul Gandhi said: “BJP leaders don't want English to be taught in schools. But children of all their leaders go to English-medium schools. Actually, they don't want children of poor farmers and labourers to learn English, dream big and get out of fields.”
News agency ANI further quoted him as saying: “If you want to speak to people of rest of the world, Hindi will not work; English will. We want children of poor farmers and labourers to compete with Americans and win over them using their language. I'm happy that 1,700 English-medium schools have been opened in Rajasthan.”
The Ashok Gehlot Cabinet had sanctioned the opening of 1,000 English-medium schools. In August, over 400 vernacular-medium schools were converted to English-medium institutes.
Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra, which began on September 7 in Kanyakumari, has, so far, passed through Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and is now in Rajasthan. It completed 100 days on Friday.
The Yatra will enter Delhi on December 24, where Gandhi is likely to be joined by actor-turned-politician Kamal Hasaan.
The Yatra will then take an eight-day break and move on to Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab and culminate in Jammu and Kashmir.
Prominent personalities, such as Pooja Bhatt, Riya Sen, Sushant Singh, Swara Bhasker, Rashami Desai, Akanksha Puri, and Amol Palekar have participated in the Yatra.
Besides them writers, military veterans, including former Navy chief admiral L Ramdas, Opposition leaders such as Shiv Sena's Aaditya Thackeray and the NCP's Supriya Sule, and former RBI governor Raghuram Rajan, also joined the march at various points.
(With inputs from PTI.)