A report by Reporters’ Collective, based on RTIs, said between 2022 and 2023, as many as 40 Sainik Schools were awarded to educational institutes linked with RSS, Hindutva organisations and leaders of the ruling BJP or its allies.
New Delhi: Hitting out at the ruling BJP government for ‘communalising” Sainik Schools, run under the Union Defence Ministry, the CPI(M) has said the Centre should withdraw its order to invite private players to run these schools, many of which have been assigned to institutions with “RSS and BJP links”.
In a press statement in reaction to media reports that 40 Sainik Schools had been awarded to Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and Hindutva groups, the Left party said: “This new policy is just not about sharing finances and infrastructure on a PPP model. The schools that are entering into agreement with SSS and the government include a significant number of institutions with avowedly RSS and BJP links.”
It said such move reinforced the trend of communalising education and had the “potential for profoundly impacting the high secular standards of our military establishments.”
Sainink Schools have been traditionally run by the autonomous Sainik School Society (SSS) under the Ministry of Defence. The schools play an important role in nurturing students to get entry to the premiere National Defence Academy and the Indian Naval Academy. Eventually a substantial number of Sainik School pass outs occupy the higher echelons of India’s defence forces, it said.
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