90 SOCIAL SCIENTIST to disaster. India is a mixture of several races which includes not only the Aryans but the Dravidians as well.35 Chuba Chang, the education minister of Nagaland, said: "BJP is distorting facts of history. The introduction of astrology also goes against the scientific tradition. To put handpicked men in research bodies is a matter of concern." Ratnesh Soloman, Education minister of Madhya Pradesh said "The 1986 Education Policy is valid even today. There is no scientific basis to what the central government is doing today." Arjun Singh, member CWC, Congress I, said "Every single effort to achieve consensus is not only thwarted but opposed by the government. In the last three years this government has not brought anything to do with education for discussion in parliament. Throughout its history India has maintained human values and this will be a source of strength in the struggle against communal forces." Ajit Jogi, Chief minister of Chattisgarh said "Education is in the concurrent list but in the name of religion they are being irreligious. We cannot allow this rewriting of history. We have tried to stop the particular type of education, which Saraswati Shishu Mandirs are imparting." Mohd. Salim, minister of technical education. West Bengal said "Instead of universalisation of education there is parochialism of education. Minority institutions are being targeted." Prof. Romila Thapar concluded the session by addressing the problem of actually realising the principles of secularism in practice. Mere legislation is not enough and there is a need to go into the nitty gritties by looking at textbooks, what is being shown on TV and what is happening in the schools and universities, she said. She also emphasised that the new millennium has opened new avenues for knowledge, and the need was to look forward to these possibilities rather than backwards to unconditionally glorify the past. The need is to find ways to make millions educated and not merely literate. In this context she criticised the tendency to attribute all knowledge to the Vedas, and pointed out that much that we pride ourselves on, as Indian contributions to world civilization, developed independently of the Vedic corpus or sometimes even in opposition to it. Recognising this does not mean that one is denigrating the study of the Vedas. She also questioned the assertion by the government that it is promoting an indigenous system of knowledge. In fact there is much that it draws from nineteenth century colonial views of India, and from the priority