There were several difficult moments for the ruling party during the inaugural session of the conference. As the Saraswati Vandana was invoked, not only did the education ministers of states ruled by the Opposition stage a walk out, the BJP's own coalition partner, the Akali Dal, also joined in the protest.

So manifest was the opposition to what was perceived as an insidious attempt to impose the RSS agenda on the proceedings that HRD Minister Murli Manohar Joshi was forced to beat a quick retreat and drop his earlier plan to get P. D. Chitlangia of the Friends of Tribal Society to present a set of recommendations on reforming the education system in the country. Chitlangia's recommendations were part of the annexures to the Agenda Papers sent by the ministry to all the participants.

The paper may have been jettisoned for the moment. Butsince it had clearly won the approval of the HRD Minister and the ideologues of the BJP, it deserves a careful reading.

Its central argument hinges on the need to alter the school curriculum so that it is ``Indianised, nationalised and spiritualised''. But this proposal, unexceptional though it may sound, raises several questions. What exactly is meant by ``Indianising'', ``nationalising'' and ``spiritualising'' education? Who is to define these terms? Will it mean the imposition of a homogeneous, monolithic and majoritarian worldview on succeeding generations of Indians to the exclusion of other religious and linguistic traditions in the country?

These are legitimate questions that Opposition parties and concerned educationists have repeatedly raised. The Congress party has attacked these proposals on the grounds that they compromise minority rights. This betrays a limited understanding of the inherent danger of such proposals. They in fact compromise the very existence of India as a democratic,non-sectarian state.

Strangely, while Prime Minister Vajpayee seems alive to these implications, going by his inaugural speech in which he emphasised his government's commitment to ``secular values'', his HRD minister seems intent on steering the ship of state in a diametrically opposite direction, his numerous declaimers to the contrary notwithstanding.

Such exercises in doublespeak do in no way behove a mature political party, besides making it seem both manipulative and impetuous. They also invariably lead to situations of chaos and embarrassment like those witnessed on Thursday.

Hopefully, the HRD minister and his political party have learnt their lessons from all this. If the BJP wants to be taken seriously for its skills of governance, it would do well to bring modern education to the millions of children in this country who haven't seen the inside of a classroom all these years.

It should also ensure that those educated do not languish in the ranks of the unemployed but do their bit to takeIndia forward into the 21st century. Thus far, the BJP's educational ``experts'' seem more intent in transporting the country back to the 19th.