Prayagraj (Uttar Pradesh) [India], March 31 (ANI): With the Congress Parliamentary Party (CPP) chairperson Sonia Gandhi criticising the National Education Policy (NEP), Uttar Pradesh Minister Sanjay Kumar Nishad took a jibe at the Opposition party on Monday, claiming that the 'public rejected Congress' because their own Education Policy was bad, as the party 'did not allow rural population to study English.'

'The public takes the decisions and the public is the future of the country, so public rejected Congress because their Education Policy was really bad. For 60 years, they didn't let the rural population study English. What Education Policy did they have?' the UP minister told ANI.

'Constitution was drafted in English. Medical, Engineering and other courses were in English. A large population of India lives in villages. But they didn't let them (study English),' he added.

Accusing the Congress of being a dishonest party, the minister said that the party did not implement the Right to Education (RTE) properly.

'Education is a fundamental right, but who can be more dishonest than Congress? That they said they will follow Supreme Court's order on Right to Education, they said that they will educate but won't take examinations, they took away people's merit,' he added.

'Today with (PM) Modi ji, we are following international policies. Children of Muslims are becoming doctors and engineers, everyone's kids become educate. If someone gets educated, they join the mainstream development, our policy is that each section of society gets educated, don't fight with each other,' UP Minister Nishad said.

Earlier in an opinion piece in The Hindu, Sonia Gandhi had launched a fierce critique on the Centre on the issue of NEP, accusing it of implementing its 'three core agendas -- centralisation, commercialisation and communalisation' in an opinion piece published today. She accused the union government of shutting down public schools and pushing people out of the education system.

The National Education Policy, 2020 (NEP) aims to upgrade India's education system, with the aim of implementing a slew of reforms. The National Policy on Education has been introduce thrice in the country's history. First was in 1968, formulated under the leadership of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, the second policy was made in 1992 by under the P V Narasimha Rao-led government, a modification of the 1986 policy. (ANI)