"Back To Saffron": Rajasthan To Change Colour Of Cycles Given To Students

It's code saffron once again in Rajasthan with the return of the BJP government in the state. Bicycles given to schoolchildren will go back to being saffron, the state's education minister has announced.

"We are going back to the colour saffron," minister Madan Dilawar said. "In our previous tenure, the colour of the bicycles was saffron, but the Congress made it black after it came to power. We are only reverting it to saffron, the colour of valour and chivalry," Mr Dilawar said.

"It's the colour of patriotism, fire and the Sun at sunrise," he added.

Political experts said there is more than lyrical poetry to the decision of giving eight lakh students of Class 8 and 9 the bicycles. The scheme was started to prevent school dropouts, so that students especially girls in remote areas have a means to get to school.

The black bicycles were bought after floating a tender of Rs 133 crore. Now, the saffron bicycles will cost the state Rs 150 crore, with each costing Rs 3,933.

The Congress's Pratap Singh Kachariyawas said the party has no problem with the colour of the cycles, but changing it would be a waste of government money and time.

"Why is the government spending money on making  cycles saffron? How does it matter if it's a green, black or orange cycle? The point is it should be given to students. We don't play politics with colour. Our focus is development," Mr Kachariyawas said.

The Education Department has been in the news for another controversy. Mr Dilawar had said books that call "Akbar the Great" will be taken off the shelves, as he cannot be greater than Maharana Pratap.

This controversy has raised its head now and then in Rajasthan, with the BJP government insisting Akbar cannot be called "The Great" if Maharana Pratap is not elevated as well.

The Education Minister was also in the news for a record surya namaskar exercise across schools in Rajasthan, when on February 15 some 1.14 crore children performed the exercise simultaneously across schools in the state.