School kids to recite ‘Gayatri Mantra’

Chandigarh: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in Haryana is all set to make students in government schools of Haryana recite the "Gayatri Mantra" during morning prayers. Haryana's Education Minister Ram Bilas Sharma said on Saturday that the state government is going to make recitation of Gayatri Mantra mandatory in morning prayers in schools. 

"Haryana is the land of 'Bhagwad Gita' and the cow. Reciting the Gayatri Mantra will inculcate values among students," Sharma told the media here. The BJP government in Haryana led by former RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh) ideologue, Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, had in 2015 announced that lessons from Hindu holy book Bhagwad Gita would be part of the school curriculum. This was introduced in 2016. Opposition parties in Haryana have accused the BJP government of "saffronising the education system".