New Delhi: Union Education Minister Dr Ramesh Pokhriyal 'Nishank' has been active in politics since 1980 when the state of Uttarakhand was not even been created.
However, he was associated with the Uttarakhand Sangharsh Samiti and he continues to be associated with the politics of Uttarakhand.
After the creation of Uttarakhand, he also became the chief minister of the state and also held many important positions.
It is, however, worth stating here that Dr Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, despite being in several important political positions, has been able to write 75 books.
His books cover a range of topics and issues which shows how a politician can keep the litterateur within him alive notwithstanding his political commitments and other related pulls and pressures.
In an exclusive interview with ETV Bharat, Dr Pokhriyal said that despite his love for literature he never neglected politics.
"Although politics has diversified my writings as I get varied topics to write upon," he said.
He said that the work of literature is created only when he has a special time for such creative works, mostly when he travels; he is in flight or as and when he has spare time.
He revealed that almost every day he tries to write something creatively – whether poetry or something related to any other genre of literature – which gives him immense mental satisfaction.
Dr Pokhriyal said that former Prime Minister and Bharat Ratna Atal Bihari Vajpayee had appreciated his poems many times and had also told the people about his poems.
When asked how he manages to keep writing and that too about important facets of literature and other topics despite holding very important positions in politics, Dr Pokhriyal said: “Whatever I have seen or felt, I try to put them in simple and easy to understand language so that even common people read them.”
He admitted that as a politician, he is certainly busy, but his interactions with the people during public meetings and other programmes, he gets many topics for writing as well, which come out in the form of stories and poems.
Dr Nishank said that he did not need to think separately for doing creative works.
He also revealed that he did never allow either politics or his writings to influence each other.
In an eye-opener revelation, he said that he sleeps but only for four hours. In his time management, there is a special slot for doing creative works.
Apart from this fixed schedule, he also does not miss the opportunity to do literary works while travelling. He makes the most of the time he gets in writing something.
The Union Minister said that writing is as much important for him as food for staying alive.
He said that he has equally contributed to different genres of literature. So far he has to his credit 11 collections of poetry, 11 novels, collections of stories, several other books including many on child literature. In all, he has got over 75 books published so far.
Speaking on the online education amid CPVID-19 pandemic in the country, the Education Minister said that it was indeed a big challenge but the whole team of the Education department worked day in, day out to make this possible across the country.
"Each and every employee of the education ministry worked hard so that the future of the children is not affected. They were busy to ensure that the students do not lose one year of their academic life for which he salutes each and every staff of his ministry," Pokhriyal said.
He said, "When opposition parties raised questions about the safety and security of students, we accepted it as a challenge and ensured that the examinations are held in a proper manner so that these students are not dubbed as ones who cleared the NEET examination during the coronavirus but in a different manner."
"Imagine if they were instructions for the students not to apply if they had cleared the NEET test virtually, this could have hit scores of students hard, which we did not let happen. The NEET examination was held across the country by maintaining social distancing. Had we not done this, our students would have lost one year of their career. Had we allowed them to get admission without appearing in the test, they would have to face many other hardships in time to come as well, which we did not want," he added.
When asked to comment on the fact that in India when students of elementary to higher classes have adapted themselves to the online mode of teaching but things are slowly unlocking and now there is a new challenge before them to return to schools and colleges, how his ministry is geared up to deal with the situation, to this he said, “Yes, it is a big challenge. Any decision will be taken only by keeping in mind the interests of the students and not at their cost at all. We will not play with their lives. The decision will not be taken at the central level but the chief ministers of all states will be involved.”
He said that decisions will be taken based on prevailing conditions in different parts of the country and nothing will be imposed on the students.
It is worth mentioning here that Union Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal 'Nishank' will be conferred with prestigious literary honour- the Vatayan Lifetime Achievement Award- at a virtual ceremony on November 21.
Also Read: Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal to get prestigious literary award on Nov 21
