One of the first things that the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance government embarked on when it came to power was to 'rectify' the various institutional anomalies that had allegedly crept into the sphere of education and research during the tenures of previous governments in India. Pursuing this agenda zealously is the RSS loyalist and Hindutva hardliner, Murli Manohar Joshi, heading the union Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry which controls education in India. Joshi also has additional charge of Science and Technology.
The 'rectification' programme that was started had two aspects to it. One involved the reconstitution of various committees and the replacement of heads of research, educational and scientific institutions. The other was changing the very content and intent of broad educational objectives. Therefore, committees were reconstituted and heads changed in the case of the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (GNCA), the Indian Council of Historical Research (ICHR), Indian Council for Social Science Research (ICSSR), National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) and the University Grants Commission (UGC).
There were other bodies as well that had to bear the impact of the ideological preference of the BJP. Committees of the Council for Advancement of People's Action in Rural Technology (CAPART) were reconstituted, and the prestigious Indian Institute of Advanced Studies at Shimla given a new director regarded as a sympathiser of the BJP and its ideology. Those institutions which resisted changes were victimised with denial of regular funds. The Gandhian Institute of Studies (GIS) in Varanasi is a ready example. The ICSSR, which channels government funds to institutes under its control, has been instructed not to give funds even for salaries of employees with the GIS. This vendetta was apparently prompted by the government's inability to install a nominee of the HRD minister as the institute's director.
Regarding the content of education, despite opposition from several teachers' bodies and reputed scientists, the HRD Ministry has gone ahead with the plan for introducing vedic sastrology at the university level. Together with this, the popularisation of Sanskrit at various fora has been taken up with a missionary zeal. Teachers' bodies have been critical of this chauvinistic support for a language which the Sangh calls a "world language". At the same time, because the government has reduced funds to universities, departments of modem Indian languages all over are dying from lack of financial support.