Selfie points in colleges with PM Modi's picture matter of pride, not mandatory: Pradhan

New Delhi, Dec 7 (PTI) Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Thursday said colleges have been asked to set up selfie points with pictures of Prime Minister Narendra Modi because he has made the country proud globally but it is not mandatory for students to click photos.

"We have been seeing since childhood that pictures of the president, prime minister and Mahatma Gandhi are on the walls in the schools and offices. Now, when we are putting selfie points with pictures of a leader who has made us proud globally and taken the country to different heights, what is your problem? It is a democracy... If you don't want to click selfies, don't," Pradhan said, responding to objections raised by some members in Lok Sabha.

"Children are clicking selfies, they are celebrating it. It is not mandatory... but a matter of pride... the prime minister of a country is not of any party or class but of everyone," he said.

The University Grants Commission (UGC) had last week asked universities and colleges across the country to set up selfie points at strategic locations in their campuses to raise awareness among youngsters about India's achievements in various fields.

The institutions can only put up the selfie points in accordance with the approved designs in 3D layouts shared by the Ministry of Education, the UGC had said.

The Congress had criticised the Centre over this, alleging Modi was leaving no stone unturned to save his "flailing image" in the run-up to next year's Lok Sabha polls. PTI