BJP ministers walk out of education meet

A meeting of the Central Advisory Board of Education in New Delhi on Tuesday got off to a stormy start with education ministers of Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled states staging a walk-out protesting against the Union government's "attempt to push its own agenda."

This was the first time the CABE was meeting in almost 10 years.

Just as Human Resources Development Minister Arjun Singh was about to make the opening remarks, Rajasthan Education Minister Ghanshyam Tiwari stood up and demanded that references to the government's "Common Minimum Programme and communalisation of education" be removed from the minister's speech.

Demanding that education and only education be the agenda of the meeting, Tiwari said: "We are not here to give our seal of approval to the CMP."

Tiwari then walked out of the meeting, followed by Anandi Ben Patel of Gujarat, Ajay Chandrakar of Chhattisgarh, P N Singh of Jharkhand and Alka Jain of Madhya Pradesh.