If Madhya Pradesh’s Education Minister Archana Chitnis and Industries Minister Kailash Vijayvargiya, who is virtually the No 2 in the Shivraj Singh Chouhan Cabinet, back their words with action, the ceremonial dress worn during convocations would be replaced by a ‘Bharatiya’ version in the state.

“It’s a sign of colonial slavery,” the Education Minister, who sports a big bindi, said at the annual convocation of Bhopal’s Barkatullah University while making a symbolic gesture of taking off the mortarboard (the square academic cap) and not wearing it till she finished her address.

“We look like cartoons in this borrowed costume. We should redesign it to suit our cultural, geographical and climatic conditions,” said the minister and requested Governor Rameshwar Thakur to take the first step towards amending the statutes to make the change possible. “Let MP set an example,” she added.

Vijayvargiya had mooted the idea first while addressing the annual convocation of Indore’s Devi Ahilya Vishwavidyalaya recently. “The British legacy should be replaced with something like dhoti-kurta and Rajasthani turban, and tilak should be applied on the foreheads of students getting degrees,” he had said while requesting Chitnis to take the baton.

Since then Chitnis has carried the idea forward by talking about it in every convocation she attended.

Among the measures Chitnis has either introduced or tried to implement after taking over as Education Minister are reintroduction of Guru-paad pujan (the practice of washing the teacher’s feet) on Teachers’ Day, recital of Bhojan Mantra (prayer meal) before mid-day meals and bestowing Rashtra Rishi tag on school teachers.

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