Over 1000 members of the Federation of All Christian Educational Institutions, today staged a demonstration here protesting against the draft National Education Policy 2016, terming it as infringement on the constitutional rights of minority institutions.

The agitators, majority of them teachers and correspondents and management staff of 140 institutions, from Coimbatore, Tirupur, Erode and Karur, raised slogans against the move to implement the policy.

They alleged that the Centre wanted to bring back the Varnashram and Gurukulam model of learning, raising a question mark on the sovereignty of the nation.

Stating that the new policy would deprive them (minority institutions) their rights under Article 30 (1) of the Constitution, they said the move was nothing but infringement on the rights of States in the field of education.

They urged the Government to set up a committee, comprising the representatives from SC/ST, Minority community, experts and women to discuss and frame policy, which would be beneficial to all sections of the society.

In a petition submitted to the District Collector, Shankar, they alleged that shades of Hindu nationalism were found in the draft and it tried to sanskritise education and impose compulsory yoga and vedic education in all schools. They also alleged discrimination of students form backward classes.

According to them, of the five members who drafted the policy, only one of them was an academician while the remaining members had backing from the RSS.