No Guru Utsav, we'll celebrate our own version of Teacher's Day: Bengal govt

The West Bengal government on Monday joined the Opposition against the move by the Human Resources Development (HRD) Ministry to rename Teacher’s Day as ‘Guru Utsav’, saying that it would not follow the HRD diktat and will celebrate its own Teacher’s Day. [caption id=“attachment_1691273” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] HRD Minister Smriti Irani said she could not understand why there was opposition against Guru Utsav. IBN[/caption] According to CNN-IBN, West Bengal Education Minister Partha Chatterjee said, “We have received the directive of the Central government but won’t follow it. The state government will follow its own programme.” Two of BJP’s Tamil Nadu allies, Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) and Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (MDMK), on Monday opposed naming Teacher’s Day as ‘Guru Utsav’, with PMK terming it as a discreet attempt to impose Sanskrit. Leaders of PMK S Ramadoss and MDMK chief Vaiko demanded that the Centre should immediately withdraw the order to rename Teachers’ Day as ‘Guru Utsav.’ While welcoming Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s decision to interact with students on 5 September, Ramadoss opposed the day being called as ‘Guru Utsav’. “It is not proper for the central government to have changed the name as Guru Utsav. This is a discreet attempt to impose Sanskrit, which is not acceptable,” Ramadoss, who besides Vaiko had opposed the Sanskrit Week celebrations in CBSE schools recently, said in a statement. Vaiko also welcomed Modi’s initiative to interact with students, but said it was “strongly condemnable” that the Union HRD Minister had renamed Teachers’ Day as ‘Guru Utsav’. (With inputs from PTI)