Cong attacks govt over deletion of chapters on Gandhi from NCERT
BJP-led incumbent government is distorting the facts by whitewashing with a vengeance, says Congress
Hitting out at the government over some texts missing from NCERT’s new class 12 textbooks, the Congress on Wednesday said that the BJP-led incumbent government is distorting the facts by “whitewashing with a vengeance.”
Reacting to the deletion of chapters on Mahatma Gandhi, including Gandhi’s pursuit of Hindu-Muslim unity irking the right-wing and the ban on the RSS for some time, Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh, in a tweet, said, “This reveals the ruling regime’s TRUE mindset. After all, the RSS had not only attacked Gandhi but had been bitterly opposed to Dr Ambedkar as well.” However, the NCERT has claimed that no curriculum trimming has happened this year and the syllabus was rationalised last year in June.
Responding to the media report claiming the deletion of certain chapters in NCERT books, an official said, “Subject expert panel had recommended dropping texts on Gandhi. It was accepted last year only. It was not mentioned in the list of rationalised content due to oversight. Any missing contents in the list will be notified in a day or two.”
In the report it has been claimed that NCERT has deleted the certain contents from class 12 political science textbooks, which include “Gandhiji’s death had a magical effect on communal situation in the country”, “Gandhiji’s pursuit of Hindu-Muslim unity provoked Hindu extremists”, “organisations like RSS were banned for some time”, “communal politics began to lose its appeal”.
Tagging a media report on it, Ramesh said on Twitter, “Whitewashing with a vengeance.” The Congress leader further attacked the government over axing of chapters related to the Mughals and Dalit from the textbooks.
Coming out in defence of the decision to remove certain references from the textbooks, Union minister Shobha Karandlaje said that the Congress was the biggest manipulator of India’s historical facts and the BJP was only correcting the wrongdoings of the past.
“Facts that threatened Congress and never made it to textbooks were — Barbarism of Mughals, Era of Emergency, Genocide of Kashmir Pandits and Sikhs, Corruption of Congress. BJP is only correcting your wrongdoings,” the union minister said in a tweet.
