NEW DELHI: Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Wednesday wrote to President Droupadi Murmu on the decision to operate Sainik Schools in partnership mode with NGOs and private schools, saying it was a blatant attempt to politicise the independent schools and should be rolled back.

In a letter to President Murmu, Kharge cited a recent media report that said 62% of the 40 memorandum of understanding finalised in this context were signed with entities belonging to the RSS-BJP-Sangh Parivar including a chief minister’s family, MLAs, BJP office-bearers and RSS leaders. Kharge, who is also the leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, stressed this was in violation of the long-held convention of keeping the armed forces and its affiliate institutions away from any partisan politics and shadows of varying political ideologies.

“You would appreciate the widely accepted fact that this deliberate clear compartmentalization was in line with the highest democratic values and based on international experiences. This indeed kept our democracy thriving robustly, even as regimes across the globe fell to military interference, subversion of democracy and martial law,” he added.

“This is a blatant step to politicise the independent Sainik Schools – a preparatory platform which plays a leading role in sending cadets for the National Defence Academy (NDA) and Indian Naval Academy. Sainik Schools were established by India’s first Prime Minister, Pandit Nehru in 1961 and they have been the beacon of military leadership and excellence since then.”

Kharge demanded “a complete rollback of this privatisation policy and annulment of these MoUs, so that children studying at Armed Forces Schools retain desired character, vision and honour required for the service of the nation.”

In a statement on April 3, the defence ministry said the insinuation that the new Sainik Schools were being allocated to institutions based on their political or ideological affiliations was unfounded.

It said a rigorous selection process was followed to finalise institutions to run the new Sainik Schools and the political or ideological affiliation or otherwise of the applicant institution does not influence the selection process.

“The scheme for new Sainik Schools is well thought out. The selection process itself is rigorous, checks and balances have been built in to ensure continuing adherence to the objectives and strong incentives are in place to provide financial support to deserving students,” the April 3 statement said.