Headlines
Celebrating V-Day as Mom's Day - order withdrawn
Satara (Maharashtra), Feb 13
A directive
asking schools and colleges in Maharashtra's Satara district to
celebrate St. Valentine's Day as "Mother's Day" was withdrawn Friday, an
official said.
Maharashtra Education Minister Vinod Tawde said of the Feb 11 circular: "It was wrong to issue such a circular."
Shortly
after IANS broke the story, a top state education department official
called up the district education authorities and asked them to withdraw
the embarassing order immediately.
The Wednesday circular, issued
by the Satara District Education Officer(Primary) directing schools and
colleges to celebrate V-Day Saturday as Mother's Day, caused a huge
row.
Hours after it became public knowledge, triggering
opposition from social activists and NGOs, officials sent out a fresh
circular asking all the educational institutions to ignore the earlier
order.
"We have withdrawn the previous order and issued a fresh
one. The earlier order went out owing to some technical issues,"
District Education Officer Pravin Ahire told IANS, without explaining
the 'technical issues'.
The Maharashtra education department in
Mumbai has sought a report to know under what circumstances was the
order issued, an official source said.
Official sources contended
that the idea for such a celebration came from a senior district
education official but the circular was issued before final discussions
were held.
NGO Maharashtra State Mahila Lokayog (MSML) termed the
directive as "obnoxious", representing the mindset of the Bharatiya
Janata Party-Shiv Sena government in the state.
"This is nothing
but 'cultural goondaism' and a 'Talibani fatwa'. We have no objection to
celebrations of love for mother but why select Valentine's Day for
this?" MSML chairperson Varsha Deshpande said.
The earlier order
had been sent to hundreds of public and private primary and secondary
schools besides around 25 colleges in the district.
All these
educational institutions were also directed to make the students sing a
Marathi poem dedicated as love for mother - "Hambrun Vasar Aale Chaat-ti
Jawa Gai".
They were told to click photographs of the Mother's Day celebrations and submit them to the district education officer.