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Ahmedabad, September 4: Move over Dr S Radhakrishnan, Narendra Modi is here to play the role of teacher-philosopher. The former President of India, who is considered one of country’s greatest teachers and philosopher-statesmen and has his birthday celebrated as Teacher’s Day every September 5, will have to take a backseat in Gujarat on Friday. The state Government has decided that what schoolchildren across the state need is an hour of ‘Modispeak’.

Accordingly, Chief Minister Narendra Modi will go live on TV from 11 am till noon on Friday and it would be mandatory for students in every school in Gujarat to watch him.

Had this directive not been there, the students would have celebrated Teacher’s Day as usual — by playing ‘teacher’ for a day. In fact, it’s the thrill of teaching classmates that students wait for the entire year. “The Government is robbing children of a genuine opportunity to celebrate the day in the traditional way,” rued a teacher.

Televisions have been hastily organised in schools for the live telecast. School principals in all public schools have been asked to arrange for one TV set for every 100 students. They have been also asked to arrange for cable network connection as the CM’s speech would be telecast live on DD 11 from Town Hall in Gandhinagar. The schools have been asked to send compliance report once the event is over. Local councillors have been asked to arrange for TV sets in municipal schools. Some councillors have said that they are finding it difficult to arrange for televisions in their wards.

The students will be administered an oath by the CM on Friday. A copy of the pledge has been dispatched to all schools and the principals have been asked to distribute photocopies to their students so that they can read the oath correctly. This means additional expenditure for principals who will have to arrange for the photocopies at their own expense.

Authorities at Delhi Public School, however, said that they had not received any such circular which, they claim, means that the order was issued only to the Gujarat Board schools.

Asarwa Congress councillor Shantaben Panchal has criticised the move alleging that it is nothing but cheap publicity for the CM.