'If USA can stop prayers in schools, why can't India?'

asky332000

'If USA can stop prayers in schools, why can't India?'January 30, 2019 11:12 IST
'They are saying my petition is an attack on Hindu religion.'
You pray in your home, there is no problem, but the school is a public institution run by government funds'

Advocate Veenayak Shah has filed a petition in the Supreme Court seeking the 'forthwith' discontinuation of Sanskrit and Hindi prayers in government-run Kendriya Vidyalayas on the ground that it was based on the Hindu religion and was being imposed on students.

It also violated Article 28(1) of the Constitution prohibiting religious instructions in State-funded schools.
Jabalpur-based Shah's petition challenged the Revised Education Code for the KV Sangathan which made attendance at the prayers compulsory. Another litigant in the matter was the Jamiat Ulema e Hind.
Started more than 50 years ago, there are today more than 1,100 KV schools across the country imparting a centralised education system.
Appearing on behalf of the government and rebutting the petition, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said the prayers -- Asatoma Sadgamayu (lead us from untruth to truth), and Sahana Vavatu (may the supreme deity protect us) -- were not religious in nature, but represented universal truths.
After hearing the petition on Monday, January 28, 2019, Justices R F Nariman and Vineet Saran felt it raised matters of 'seminal importance' and decided to refer the questions raised in the petition to a Constitution Bench. It was then duly referred to the Chief Justice of India for listing it before a larger bench.

"In the USA, when religious prayers stopped in schools, scientific culture developed in society after which there was progress in that country. If we adopt the same scientific temper, our country too will progress," Shah tells Rediff.com's Syed Firdaus Ashraf.

READ MORE AT : https://www.rediff.com/news/inte ... 0=&isnlp=0&isnlsp=1

Srinivas1939

This is a needless controversy.Some politicians see red whenever  any mention of Sanskrit is made associating it with hindu traditions.What Tushar Mehta said is right.The verses represent universal truths common to all faiths.