Calling for sweeping changes in the current education system prevailing in the country, Union Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, M. Venkaiah Naidu, has said that India’s fall from intellectual excellence should be attributed to the unimaginative education system framed by the Britishers.

Inaugurating a student facilities centre at the Kumaraguru College of Technology in Coimbatore, on Sunday, Venkaiah Naidu alleged that the current English-based education system was framed to glorify the British and destroy the pride of India.

“It is high time we revisited our education system and teach our students about the lives of great men who lived here so that they return to our roots and help the development of science and technology in the country,” he said.

Raising concern over the involvement of students in unwanted political and anti-national activities, Naidu said that such disturbances are caused by the leftists and jihadist people who tend to destroy the young minds.

“These people with wicket minds are conspiring against the students and turning them into terrorists. We cannot accept anyone who criticizes the country and supports the cause of anti-nationals like Afshal Guru and Yakub Memon,” he said.

He claimed that the attention of the students should not be diverted to such issues, and instead must remain on education, personality development, and career building, which would help the nation.

“Go to foreign countries; learn; earn and come back to the motherland,” he advised.

Dismissing the controversy over the “Bharat Mata ki Jai” slogan, Naidu said that citizens should understand that the slogan does not have any anti-religious ideas and carries no discrimination.

“If we love our mother nation, it will never offend us in any way. This is a concern of the entire nation,” said the minister.

Claiming that elections are blocking the development of the nation as they occur in one place or the other many times in five years, he also called for simultaneous elections in the country once every five years.

The Minister later gave the Arutselvar Dr. N. Mahalingam award to K. Arumugam, former faculty of KCT.