States ‘trying their best’ to help schoolkids listen to Modi

States across the country including those run by non-BJP parties are pulling out all stops to help schoolchildren listen to and interact with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Teacher’s Day in a first of its kind exercise to reach out to students.

States including Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan, Jharkhand and Andhra Pradesh said they are making ‘necessary arrangements’ for the prime minister’s telecast including hiring TV sets in schools where there are none.

However, there was an occasional voice of dissent with West Bengal saying many schools do not have the infrastructure for making such arrangements. ‘If they (the Centre) give us such instructions, then there is very little time to make arrangements now. Where is the infrastructure in schools,’ state education minister Partha Chatterjee said.

A top official of Tamil Nadu School Education Department said as of now there are no plans to make arrangements in schools but noted it can be arranged quickly ‘if warranted’. The idea is to motivate children and activities like these would help improve teacher-student relations, he, however, said.

Modi, during his tenure as the chief minister of Gujarat, used to deliver speeches, which were broadcast live across schools of the state on Teacher’s Day, and the Gujarat government has made elaborate arrangements, like every year so that his speech can be shown live across schools of the state.