This week, host Shivnarayan Rajpurohit is joined by independent journalist Astha Savyasachi and The Mooknayak’s Arun Kumar Verma.
Arun reported on the rise and fall of the Bahujan Samaj Party. He delves into the ups and downs of Mayawati’s political career and explains how the BSP became sidelined. He also talks about the new leadership with Mayawati’s nephew Akash Anand and what changes are expected from him to revive the party.
Astha reported on how many Sainik schools across India are run by people with direct or indirect connections to the BJP or RSS. She explains how the central government essentially handed over 62 percent of new military schools to the Sangh Parivar, BJP politicians, and allies, bypassing eligibility criteria in the process.
Tune in.
Timecodes
00:00:00 - Introduction
00:02:28 - BSP’s rise and fall
00:10:41 - Sainik schools
00:38:08 - Recommendations
Recommendations
Arun
Astha
Centre hands over 62% of new Sainik Schools to Sangh Parivar, BJP politicians and allies.
Shivnarayan
How BJP ‘won’ in Surat: Unravelling 24 hours of peculiarities
Produced and edited by Saif Ali Ekram, recorded by Anil Kumar.
Sting: [00:00:00] This is a News Laundry podcast and you're listening to Reporters Without Orders.
Shivnarayan: Order, order. This is another episode of Reporters Without Order where we discuss what made news, what did not and something that absolutely should not have. Today we have two guests. And we will discuss with them two brilliant stories that they have written.
Uh, one is, uh, about Scenic Schools. Uh, the story is written by, uh, Aastha Savyasachi, uh, who is a freelance reporter. Her story was published by Reporters Collective. The story is about how Centre has handed over 62 percent of new Scenic Schools to Sangh Parivar, BJP politicians and allies. Another story that we will discuss is, uh, Uh, about BSP, Mayawati led BSP, uh, we'll discuss if BSP is still a political heavyweight in Uttar Pradesh, uh, particularly in this Lok Sabha elections.[00:01:00]
So this story has been written by Arun Verma from Mooknaik. Arun and Aastha, both of you, welcome, very warm welcome to, to you. Uh, pehle, uh, Arun ji se baat karenge, uh, Arun ji aap bataye ki, uh, Lok Sabha election chal raha hai abhi aur Uttar Pradesh mein kya mahaul hai.
Arun: Me
Shivnarayan: Asta, you must have been following elections. What's your assessment of this election? How is it different from previous election or.
Astha: Uh, assessment, I won't, I won't give right now, but, uh, I think this is by far the most important [00:02:00] elections. Most
Shivnarayan: important. So now let's, uh, discuss, uh, uh, stories that, uh, um, Arun has written, um, on, uh, BSP.
Tell us, what are you exploring in your story? Are you exploring the political aspect of Mayawati?[00:03:00] [00:04:00] [00:05:00] [00:06:00]
Media spaced in the but interview.[00:07:00]
You have to hit the.
Uh,
event
to mobilize.[00:08:00] [00:09:00]
First, uh, we'll discuss, um. Aastha's story, uh, how 62 percent of new Sannik schools have been handed over to Sangh Parivar, BJP politicians and allies. Aastha, how did you get this scoop?
Astha: Actually, uh, I was doing a story on RSS schools, Vidya Bharti schools, which were run by RSS. And while, uh, doing an investigation and analysis of those schools, I met a source, which, uh, during conversation told me about how this is.
also happening. That's when I started investigating it.
Shivnarayan: Okay. And then you filed a lot of, you had to file a lot of RTIs to get information? Yeah.
Astha: Yeah. But, uh, even in the RTIs, they denied, uh, giving us information saying that this might affect the [00:10:00] decisions the committee is making.
Shivnarayan: Oh, so you got replies only for some of them.
Yeah.
Astha: Most of the questions were not replied. Only one question they replied to. And that was they gave us a list of 40 schools, which signed the memorandum of agreement with the ministry of defense. And that was something which was already publicly available on the websites.
Shivnarayan: So in your story, you have Uh, in detail described how these new scenic schools have been handed over to, uh, RS affiliates or BGP politicians.
Uh, could you tell us how it was done, when it started, and what is the process under which it was done?
Astha: See, uh, earlier, Even now around 33 Cenex schools, which are, uh, basically completely run by the Cenex School Society, which is an autonomous body under Ministry of Defense. That was the pro, uh, that was a pro pattern [00:11:00] of, uh, Cenex schools.
Shivnarayan: Okay. So there are, there were only 33, 33 till now.
Astha: But in 20, uh, 2021, the union government and its budget introduced. Uh, you know, it. It proposed that they wanted to set up 100 new Scenic schools on a PPP models, public private partnership models, where, uh, the private schools and NGOs, organizations, and all these kind of things could also apply.
It's interesting to note that in their, uh, in their guidelines, they said that the government departments, the railways and all of these could also apply, but none of these applied. Uh, any school, the schools were only given to private players and NGOs and that to the NGOs of a certain, uh, certain, uh, ideological inclination.
Shivnarayan: But did government arms also apply? This is
Astha: something we asked in our [00:12:00] RTI which we were not replied to. And when the story was published, hours after the story was published and it became viral, the Ministry of Defense released its statement and that too not publicly. It gave it, gave those statements to a very few journalists.
who told us about it and it said that more than 500 applications came which was something which was denied to us in the RTI reply but they did not disclose who the people were who applied.
Shivnarayan: Okay. So, uh, so who are these, uh, uh, organizations who have, uh, uh, entered into sort of agreement with the defense ministry or the society that runs Scenic schools, right?
How did they get, what is the process? What are the criteria under which, uh, it's done?
Astha: Yeah. Uh, the thing is, uh, when you read the guidelines, for any school to be [00:13:00] approved or be eligible for approval. The only things which are required is infrastructural requirements. So much and so much of land should be there.
The fire safety should be there. And this all this kind of the infrastructural facilities, the staff should be there. So many rooms and playgrounds and all of that. But none of the points, uh, Regarding the ide, ideological leave Ideological, but even the background check of the owners or the people who are founders of these organizations or leading these schools.
The students are going to be the, uh, future. These students are going to be future cen, uh, Cenex. I mean, they're going to be the officers, the Army officer. The army of army officers. So, um. What kind of institutions are you, are going to train them? That background check was never a part of, was never a [00:14:00] part of the whole process.
This opened doors for organizations like RSS and their allies to apply and get selected even.
Shivnarayan: So you were saying 62 percent of new signing schools. So how many signing schools are there? 33 Sunny schools? No,
Astha: no. 33 were the old ones. Old ones, which were, uh, only So under the
Shivnarayan: PPP model, how many sunny schools are the new NIC schools?
Astha: 40. Uh, at least 40 Have got, uh, approvals. Have approvals, yeah.
Shivnarayan: Okay. And they are already running, or they're yet to,
Astha: some are running, some are yet to
Shivnarayan: open. Elementary. Question why Sonic schools are important for the Army? Because, uh, like what is the relevance of Sonic schools? What kind of education kids get?
If they are, um, in Sanny school, is it different from other schools?
Astha: It is slightly different because, uh, when you talk to the army veterans or people who have, you know, who have been serving the army, they, they have told us that most of the, many of the people in the armed [00:15:00] forces, they, they, are the passouts from Sainik schools.
And in the standing, uh, standing committee of defense parliamentary committees, when we look at what their observations are about Sainik schools, they call Sainik schools, the Rashtriya Military College, Rashtriya Indian Military College, and the Rashtriya Military Schools also, they call them the nurseries of the future, armed forces.
So these more than I will, uh, like to read out some data for you. Yeah. If
Shivnarayan: you could share some data from her story.
Astha: According to, uh, uh, 2013, 14 standing committee, uh, standing committee on defense, nearly 20 percent of the Scenic school students appearing every year for the exam, make the cut. Also, according to the data submitted in Rajya Sabha earlier this year, over 11 percent of the Sainik school cadets joined the armed forces in the last six years.
Also, uh, [00:16:00] there was a press release where, uh, defense minister Rajnath Singh credits the Sainik schools for contributing more than 7, 000 officers to the armed forces. So far,
Shivnarayan: 7, 000? Yes.
Astha: So this is a big number. So the quality of education, the type of education they are going to get is going to somehow affect the outlook of the armed forces.
Shivnarayan: But have you also seen a kind of education that kids get in new scenic schools? run under PPP model and old Scenic schools, which are directly under control of, uh, this, the society defense society, right? What is the name of the society?
Astha: Scenic School Society. Scenic
Shivnarayan: School Society.
Astha: Yeah. So, uh, the earlier Like how,
Shivnarayan: how both of them are different or there are similarities or
Astha: There is one, uh, academic plus curriculum, which is common to both.
But the difference is, uh, when a student is studying in, uh, for example, one of the schools, [00:17:00] which got, uh, Selected was the Samvid Gurukulam school run by, uh, Sadhvi
Shivnarayan: Ritambara,
Astha: the one with which the story starts. So, uh, all these students, both the Sainik school students and the non Sainik school students, which are studying in that school, they, the Sainik school students also read the book.
particular curriculum which is given by the Scenic School Society, but they also attend the classes which are taken by Ritambhara, which is a personality development class where they are given moral lessons on religion, on how women should behave, and all of that. So this is something which is different from the original Scenic Schools, if you will.
You can say.
Shivnarayan: So Sadhvi Ritambara is the founder of Durga Vahini. Durga Vahini is a woman's wing of VHP. Yes. Okay. And she is the owner of that school. Two schools. [00:18:00] And these schools are in?
Astha: One is in Vrindavan. And another one is in Himachal.
Shivnarayan: We'll come back to you and discuss who all are running these schools and who these people are.
We'll go back to Mr. Arun. Mr. Arun, please tell us about the new leadership of BSP.
Of leadership,
line of leader.
Arun: Uh,[00:19:00]
Can get go hand.[00:20:00]
Shivnarayan: So, what is this, that if Baspa is so upset with Bhajpa or Akash Anand is criticizing so much, so for them it was not right that they should fight with India Alliance and, and for them, I mean, chances of winning seats are more or then, how do you see this?[00:21:00]
Hmm.
Arun: Howes a political [00:22:00] instability.
Mm,
uh, election.
Shivnarayan: Arun ji, BSP is saying that wherever there is political instability, whenever there is a phase like this, BSP [00:23:00] benefits, why does this happen, please tell us in detail, what is the reason
Arun: for this? Like in the 90s, when the first assembly was formed in UP and it was not able to move for any reason, then after that, BSP
Uh, uh, uh, uh, If you look
Shivnarayan: at the current landscape, do you think that UP is a bi polar country, where only two parties have become the dominant party? There is a fight between BJP and [00:24:00] Sapa, and Basapa seems to be out of the field.
Arun: I just say first or second phase, whenever.
The BSP, the candidates who have filed, uh, uh, who are fighting, are very strong. And this time they have tried to make a combination of Dalits and Muslims. And they have also given tickets to about 7 Muslim candidates. And mostly the area of Ruhailkhand, which is the area of West UP, is Muslim dominated.
And there[00:25:00] [00:26:00]
Maddubh, Jis Tariki ka unka, uh, bum, baat kh representatives pe rally z main jis tarike se baat kar rahe hain kii Joan, euhh, it's tariki ki partiya hain woh Dalit youth ko gumraha kar rahe hain adbann anewale time may toh aisa kahi nahi lag raha hai ki ye kabhi thonon ek saath kabhi ek manch studying platform pe faceayingge
Shivnarayan: Azaad Samaj Party bhi Yunalya If there is a lottery, then
Arun: Ajaad Samaj Party, uh, Chanshekhar Ajaad ji is currently declared a contestant from Nagina In the situation until now, Ajaad Samaj Party has not assembled a candidate from anywhere in UP Okay So the whole focus is to, uh, get the party leader, Chanshekhar ji, to win Hmm Hmm For now, Ajaad Samaj Party has not released any letters yet bye.
[00:27:00] Well, I'll give you further.
Shivnarayan: BSPA tell you? What we will do so that the new leadership or Akashan's under, how can we take it ahead? See, the
Arun: last election of the BSPA in the Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and other states. It has been a lot active since then. And he is constantly doing his own media, which is State
committee.[00:28:00]
Percent reservation.
Or also representation. [00:29:00] Joh, Joh, Joh, Joh, Joh, Joh, Joh, Joh, Joh, Joh, that representation combination They have also started working to make a combination with Muslims. If we talk about the Lok Sabha elections, they have given tickets to 7 people, 7 Muslim candidates. And they are very strong candidates who are fighting very strongly.
So.
Shivnarayan: Okay, now we move, uh, move back to as, as. Um, now, uh, could you tell us who are these people? Uh, uh, I mean BJB politicians or organizations? Um, that are running these new Scenic [00:30:00] schools or who have got approval from, um, um, Scenic society, uh, to run these schools.
Astha: Out of the 40 schools, you know, which, uh, got approval from the Scenic school society, 11 are directly either owned by BJP politicians or managed.
But trusts which are chaired by them,
Shivnarayan: 11 of them.
Astha: Yes.
Shivnarayan: Okay.
Astha: Also, uh, one belongs to, uh, Adani. Yeah. And eight are managed by RSS and its allies. And additionally, six are, uh, organizations which have close ties to, uh, these rabble rouser organization and those were far right organizations and some Hindu religious organizations also.
None of the schools run by any other any religious minority in the country.
Shivnarayan: Uh, you have given examples of few schools. Uh, now could you tell us who are these politicians, uh, who are running these schools?
Astha: There's one [00:31:00] Tawang public school in Arunachal Pradesh border town Tawang. It's owned by the chief minister Pema.
And here his brother,
Shivnarayan: Tashi,
Astha: who happens to be the managing director of the school. And in Mehsana, Gujarat, there's a school which is affiliated with the Doodh Sagar
Shivnarayan: Dairy, which
Astha: is chaired by Ashok Kumar. Kumar Chori, a formal BJP, uh, general Secretary for Ana. Another school in Gujarat is Ana Sek School, which is managed by another trust.
Mm-Hmm. Under Ana dairy. It is also led by A-B-J-P-M-L-A from thaad. Currently the. Speaker of Gujarat Legislative Assembly Shankar Chaudhary. In Uttar Pradesh, there's a school run in Ittawa, which is by BJP MLA Sarita Bhaduria. And in Haryana, Baba Mastnath School in Rohtak, that's run by Mahant Balaknath, who's called the [00:32:00] Yogi of Rajasthan, right?
Yeah,
Shivnarayan: yeah. He also runs a school. He just concluded Assembly elections in Rajasthan. He fought for Malwar.
Astha: Yeah, yeah. So he also runs a school.
Shivnarayan: Did you ask them that, have you got the approval just because you are affiliated to BGP or because you have close ties with BGP?
Astha: Yes, I did.
Shivnarayan: Then what was the response?
Astha: One of the guys, I remember one of the guys, the one who runs Shakuntalam International School in Etawa, the mother is a BGP MLA, but the school is managed by the son, Ashish Bhaduria. He told me that the selection process was very expensive. extensive when I asked him, uh, how did he apply and extensive
Shivnarayan: and exhaustive?
Yes. When
Astha: I asked him, how did he apply and how did he get, uh, selected? He wasn't able to tell me the process.
Shivnarayan: So,
Astha: uh, and when I questioned him, why he was selected, maybe because, uh, he was, was he favored because he was close to the BJP? He said, you should ask this from the government. [00:33:00] So he didn't even know the process of, of, uh,
Shivnarayan: Okay.
Somebody, somebody else must have filled the form for him. Yeah. Why is it bad for Sainik schools to be run by these Hindutva ideologues or BJP leaders?
Astha: Like I said earlier also, the quality of education which is imparted to these, to the students joining the Sainik schools, these new Sainik schools is going to affect the outlook of students.
the future armed forces. So, uh, let me give you a very small example. It'll be much more clearer. There's a, there was a personality development camp organized by one of the, in one of the schools run by Ritambara. In that camp, she, she gives out some lessons for the girls. Who, uh, who are also the member, who are this, uh, this, uh, Sainik school, which is run by Ritambara is an all girls Sainik school.
So the student, girl students there are [00:34:00] listening to her when she's saying that what do we, I'm quoting her, what do we find in colleges? Girls smoking cigarettes at midnight in these hubs of education. Women are breaking liquor bottles and spreading indecency with their boyfriends on motorcycles. We had never thought that the daughters of India would be so out of control.
They are posting abusive reels on social media. They are doing nude photoshop. photoshoots, they are showing off their bodies in undergarments. It seems that the women are, these women are mentally sick. These girls don't have sanskar. So if this kind of gender policing is done in this, in this school, and this is just one part.
of the conversation. She appealed, there's one, there's another video where she appeals to the student, to the parents of these students to go and watch Kerala story with their kids, how their girls are being taken away by [00:35:00] Muslim guys. So, uh, this is the kind of conditioning which is done from a very young age.
So what is going to be the quality of, um, officers in the future? This is a big question.
Shivnarayan: And the strike rate of cadets of these schools to get into the army is very high, as you mentioned in various parliamentary committee reports. Yeah.
Astha: And they've been working very hard to make it even higher.
Shivnarayan: Now
Astha: they're going to make it make it compulsory for all the students to appear for NDA.
Shivnarayan: Um, did you reach out to defense ministry? Like why you are, uh, signing contracts, so called contract or M MOU with the BGP politicians? I mean, institute institutions run by BG politicians or RSI dialogues. Uh, what was their response?
Astha: I, uh, wrote to the ministry of defense, the Scenic school society and the big officials.
I did not receive any response. These are not, uh, these are not contracts. These are, [00:36:00] um, agreements, MOA, MOA, which are signed. So we did not receive any, uh, reply. And when the story, uh, was out within few hours, the ministry of, like I told Ministry of Defense, handed out some, uh, some, uh, notes, press notes to only a few selected journalists.
Those journalists told us that this was a reply ministry of defense is giving.
Shivnarayan: So what was the reply?
Astha: In its reply, it said, uh, that the process is again extensive and exhaustive and they do not, uh, check they do that. The political and ideological inclination of the owners and the founders does not matter.
Also, it's very interesting to note that none nowhere in their press note could they refute a single, uh, claim or a single. fact which has been presented by us in the story.
Shivnarayan: So Aastha, what is the controversy about Bhonsle Military School, uh, which is in Nagpur and run by Central Hindu Military Education Society.
They have [00:37:00] also gotten, uh, signed MOA with the, uh, with the society. Yeah. Could you tell us what is this controversy and what So
Astha: this school was established in 1935 by Hindu, right-wing I, ideolog, BS, Muja in, in 1937. So, uh, this school also recently got the permission to run a Cenex school. And, uh, it's very important to note that during the probes of 2006 NDE bomb blast and 2008 Malaga bomb blast, the Mara Anti-terrorist Squad.
Mm. investigated the Bhonsle military school where the blast accused were reportedly trained.
Shivnarayan: What role were they, I mean, were they investigating? The matter is still sub
Astha: judice, but they were, uh, but there were talks like there were reports that, uh, the accused, which were involved in these, uh, blasts, they were, they received.
in the, within the campus of Bhosle Military School.
Shivnarayan: Wow. So before we end this [00:38:00] podcast, Aastha and Arun sir, Aastha, what's your recommendation for our viewers this week?
Astha: Uh, right now I would like to to only recommend to viewers to read the work of independent news organizations, especially in this, uh, election time.
Shivnarayan: Okay. So you can read her story on Reporters Collective and we'll share the link of her story. And it's a brilliant story which came out earlier this month and good piece of investigation, investigative journalism. Uh, Arun sir, what would you recommend for our viewers, whether it's a book or a movie or anything?
I agree. They should be.
Arun: I would like to recommend News Laundry to the listeners and viewers. Recently, we have Because the MOOC 9 works especially for the marginalized section. And caste discrimination is a priority for us. So recently, I did a film review. You all know Amar Singh.[00:39:00]
Pratibha sampan log hain kis tariqe se unki leg pulling kartiye, ya unko peeche kheechne ka kaam kartiye. Usko Imtiaz Ali ne bahot hi salike se usko film aaya hai. Aur jisko bhi, khas discrimination kis tariqe se hota hai, wo kis tariqe se tabke ko peeche le jaata hai. Agar usko dekhna ho toh mere khyal se ye film usse zarur dekhni chahiye.
And especially [00:40:00] Punjabi music, then
Shivnarayan: Uh, my recommendation for our views is how BJP can date, um, one. Surat Unopposed. Basant has done, um, our in house reporter Basant Kumar has done brilliant detailed story on how candidates pulled out from the race, Lok Sabha race. The headline is, uh, how BGP won in Surat unraveling 24 hours of peculiarities.
These stories vary much in detail, and I think you will be shocked and surprised to see the details, to read the details. So this story is on our website, you can go and read it. [00:41:00] Uh, with this, this podcast is adjourned.
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