Former Chief Minister of J&K Omar Abdullah (Photo by Nitin Kanotra/Hindustan Times via Getty Images)Former Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir, Omar Abdullah, has criticised the government’s decision to make copies of Bhagavad Gita, Ramayana easily accessible at the libraries of schools and colleges in the state. He said that the government is blatantly choosing to ignore other religions.
He tweeted asking why only Hindu religious books are placed in educational institutes. In case it has to be made available, it should include religious texts of all faiths.
On 22 October, the government issued an order stating the same. The decision is said to have been made in a meeting headed by Governor Satya Pal Malik’s advisor.
News 18 quoted the order issued which says, “The School Education Department, Higher Education Department, Director Colleges, Director, Libraries and Culture Department will consider purchasing sufficient number of copies each of Urdu version of “Shrimad Bhagwat-Geeta” and “Koshur Ramayana”, authored by Shri Sarwanand Premi for making these available in schools/colleges and public libraries etc of the State.”
Following the criticism from Omar Abdullah, the government has decided to withdraw the order.
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