Bengaluru, Aug 15 (IANS): Karnataka's former Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Tuesday slammed the Congress government for announcing the scrapping of the National Education Policy (NEP) from the next academic year. 

Speaking to reporters here, Bommai urged the state government to rethink the decision. "It is a great sin to undermine our children's future and scrap the NEP for politics," he said.

"The NEP is designed to suit the needs of the present day. The blueprint of NEP was given consent by the Siddaramaiah-led Congress government between 2013 to 2018. The expert committee headed by Kasturirangan had worked behind it. Kasturirangan who evolved the policy of education for Karnataka state, has framed the NEP for the whole country," he explained.

"The move by the Congress government is nothing but gambling on the future of the children. When a system which is there across the country is not available in the state, how are our children going to compete?" Bommai questioned.

He further stated that this was going to be a big setback for the children from rural backgrounds. "CM Siddaramaiah should not see the NEP with prejudiced eyes. He should rather consider the future of students.

"CM Siddaramaiah should review the decision. If not, it will become inevitable to launch an agitation along with parents and institutions of education," Bommai said.

Talking about the probe into the works done during the tenure of BJP government, Bommai stated, "Three months have passed after CM Siddaramaiah announced the probe regarding the matter. Many reports have been given in this regard and the Congress government did not get anything substantial against the BJP.

"They are trying again to score political points. In the pretext of investigation,the long time is taken for bargaining," Bommai alleged.

Commenting on the statement of Karnataka in-charge of Congress Randeep Singh Surjewala that people who give votes to BJP are "demons", Bommai dubbed it as a "shameful, inhuman and unconstitutional statement".