EDUCATION CONVENTION 91 that European indologists gave to brahmanical texts and the brahmanical world view. The policies of the BJP government are diverting attention from the tasks of an improved present for a better life, she said. She also pointed towards how the new initiatives in education lack transparency, inhibit participation by those for whom education policies are being designed, and are geared to denying quality education to the dalits, OBCs, women and other disadvantaged sections of society. She called for an interrogation and reversal of these trends. The non-BJP governments in the states and the leaders of these parties have a greater responsibility in this context in defending secularism and the multiple cultures of the country. The school system must reflect the diversity and pluralism inherent in Indian society she said. The education system must reflect the links between education and people's aspirations more closely, she argued, among many other things. THE STATEMENT The National Convention against Communalisation of Education concluded with the release of a statement demanding the immediate withdrawal of the National Framework document, characterizing it as devoid of legitimacy. The statement also demanded that the process of consulting states in matters of national education policy should be initiated, and in fact no other document should be released till a national consensus is evolved through a discussion in the proper forums, and all the procedures adhered to which are necessary for the framing of a national policy on education. The statement also placed on record the view of the non BJP political leadership that, courses like Vedic astrology being introduced into the university system in the name of promoting traditional knowledge, are aimed at fostering revivalism and destroying the scientific academic character of our higher education, and they must be immediately withdrawn. The statement was a major development in that it is the first concerted effort by non NDA governments to oppose the BJP's policy of communalisation of education, and to criticize the NDA partners for remaining silent spectators to the havoc being unleashed by the recent changes in education and the whole scale takeover of institutions by the BJP affiliated political forces.