Indian Statistical Institute being taken over institutionally by RSS: Rahul

New Delhi: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi alleged on Sunday that the Indian Statistical Institute (ISI) is “gradually being taken over institutionally” by the RSS, while asserting that institutions will be run by knowledge and science, not by any ideology.

The leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha posted a video on his WhatsApp channel of his recent interaction with ISI students at his office in the Parliament House complex during the Winter Session of Parliament.

“I met with students from the Indian Statistical Institute at the ‘Jan Sansad’. They reiterated the same serious concerns that students and teachers from other educational institutions across the country have been consistently raising. The students explained that the ISI is gradually being taken over institutionally by the RSS,” Gandhi said in his post along with the video.

During Parliament sessions, Gandhi holds interactions from a cross-section of people and calls it the “Jan Sansad”.

“The ISI is not just any ordinary institution -- it conducts high-level research in Statistics, Mathematics, Economics, Data Science, Computer Science and policy-making, and has produced world-class experts for the country,” the former Congress chief said.

Academic councils, which should be run by academicians, are now facing bureaucratic and ideological interference, he alleged.

The syllabus and research are also being controlled by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) ideology, Gandhi added.

“This is not educational reform, but a conspiracy to weaken education and institutions -- so that the future of young people can be pushed into darkness, and these institutions can be privatised or their assets sold off,” he claimed.