Actor-turned-politician Kamal Haasan has opposed the decision of Anna University to include the content of Bhagwad Gita in BTech and MTech syllabus. He said there was no need to include the content of Bhagwad Gita in syllabus. “People can’t dictate on religion. Let student read content related to their course,” Haasan said while speaking to reporters.
Makkal Needhi Maiam chief Haasan said that let the students decide if they want to become religious preachers or religious propagandist after they are done with their study. “Bhagwat Gita should not be part of their syllabus,” he added.
The statement comes just days after Anna University introduced philosophy as part of course for engineering students. Reports suggest that the students will be taught Upanishads, Bhagavad Gita, Vedas, Plato, and Francis Bacon to create a new understanding. Speaking on the move, Vice-Chancellor MK Surappa recently told news agency ANI that it was not compulsory for every student. “So, people need not worry about it. We will amend the compulsory rule soon,” he had said.
Haasan is the latest politician from Southern India who has voiced his opposition against the move. Earlier, DMK chief MK Stalin called it an attempt to impose Sanskrit. “It is condemnable to attempt imposition of Sanskrit by making philosophy compulsory in the syllabus of Anna University’s CEG campus,” he had said in a tweet.
The student wing of DMK staged a protest and said: “The central government is continuously imposing the language issue and we condemn.” Ahead of the move, CPI (M) state unit secretary K Balakrishnan said that it was condemnable that philosophy and Bhagavad Gita had been included in the engineering syllabus. He said that it was against the principles of secularism.
