08-22-2006, 12:23 AM
BJP corners Govt on NCERT textbooks
Pioneer News Service | New Delhi
Centre orders probe into portrayal of freedom fighters as terrorists
The controversy over distortion of National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) textbooks saw a major uproar in the Rajya Sabha on Friday forcing the Government to order an inquiry into portrayal of country's legendary freedom fighters as terrorists and inclusion of other objectionable issues.
With the NCERT already in the eye of a storm over inclusion of several communally sensitive issues like Babri demolition, Sikh riots and Gujarat riots, the Government was placed on the back foot by the combined Opposition.
The issue rocked the upper House when the BJP-led Opposition strongly protested against alleged distortions and objectionable language in the NCERT school textbooks.
The Left and the Samajwadi Party and even some Congress members also backed the demand for a probe.
"This is a very urgent matter and I request the Government to conduct a probe into how these books have come about. This requires immediate action," said CPI(M)'s Sitaram Yechury .
Sensing the mood of the House, the Government assured the Elders that the Ministry would examine the issue and do the needful.
The House saw uproar when Ravi Shankar Prasad (BJP) read out portions from the NCERT books which carried objectionable language and describing freedom fighters like Bal Gangadhar Tilak as "terrorists."
"Bipin Chandra's book was reintroduced and revised. The book accuses Jats of robbery. What's worse, it calls Lok Manya Tilak, Arvindo Ghosh and Bipin Chandra Pal terrorists," said Prasad.
Almost the entire Opposition demanded a probe and immediate action against the writer of the books, which according to them, were included in the syllabus this year. The BJP members walked into the well of the House seeking permission to submit the books to the Chair.
Deputy Chairman K Rehman Khan denied the permission to table the books and said it was against the rules and urged the agitated members to go back to their seats. The House then saw sharp exchanges between the BJP and treasury benches with the Congress members countering the charge initially claiming that it was unlikely that such books were part of the school curriculum.
The treasury benches later came around to the Opposition view that the matter was serious and Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Suresh Pachauri assured the House that he would convey the sentiments of the members to the concerned ministry.
Prasad said the books also contained derogatory references to various communities and castes and obscene language besides suggestions to girl students to use cosmetics and that education and merit alone did not ensure progress in life.
He said the books allegedly termed Jat community as marauders and disparaging depiction of some other castes, adding it would pollute the minds of impressionable minds. The deputy chairman expressed concern over this and said the matter was serious.
Amidst the din, Satyavrat Chaturvedi (Congress) said if these allegations were true, the Government should look into it. Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh aired similar views and asked the Government to take suitable action against the guilty people and Sitaram Yechury agreed with this suggestion.
Seeking a probe into the alleged distortions, Abani Roy (RSP) said such books should be banned and Vijay Darda (Congress) said the distortion should be set right and an inquiry ordered to find out who had done such a thing. The din died down when Pachauri assured the members that the Government will take the matter seriously.
Another important issue to come up in the Zero Hour was the alleged irregularities in the evaluation of answer sheets of students of Chaudhary Charan Singh University, Meerut. The matter was raised by Alka Balram Kshatriya (Congress) and Sushma Swaraj (BJP) and they expressed concern over school students examining answer papers of graduation and post- graduation students of Chaudhary Charan Singh University and demanded action by the University Grants Commission.
------
Mischief afoot
The Pioneer Edit Desk
Propaganda as textbooks
In the guise of "connecting knowledge with real life situations", propagandists of the Congress masquerading as academicians are planning to feed young, impressionable minds with monumental lies by including them in NCERT textbooks. It is amazing that Mr Yogendra Yadav, a self-proclaimed psephologist who is seen more on television channels unabashedly plumbing for the Congress and the Left or pushing the case of caste over merit, and whose academic credentials would impress only his political benefactors like Union Human Resource Development Minister Arjun Singh, has been assigned the task of 'chief adviser' to the panel that is responsible for re-writing NCERT textbooks, thus putting a big question mark over the future of education in this country. Given the fact that a person of such dubious repute shall lay down the guidelines, it is not surprising that children will be fed with Congress-sanitised versions of what Mr Yadav has the audacity to describe as the "truth" about the 2004 riot in Gujarat, the Ayodhya dispute and the 1984 pogrom against Sikhs. We can take it for granted that what will appear in print in political science textbooks will be no different from the contents of Congress or CPI(M) pamphlets that paint the BJP in the bleakest of colours while celebrating recalcitrant Islamism; we can also be sure that what our children will be told about the horrendous massacre of Sikhs by mobs encouraged, if not led, by Congress leaders after Indira Gandhi's assassination shall be more than a shade different from the truth. Nor should we have any doubts about the wondrous things that will be listed as "achievements" of Mrs Gandhi's Emergency that saw the ruthless suppression of civil liberties and democratic rights. After all, as Mr Yadav has explained, the material for these events will be culled from Government sources - in other words, from Congress propaganda archives. To add a touch of authenticity, Mr Yadav and his cohorts will cite from the perverse report on the Godhra carnage prepared by Justice Banerjee at the behest of Mr Lalu Prasad Yadav which was used as publicity material along with posters of the RJD's first couple to woo Muslim voters during last year's Bihar Assembly election. <b>The textbooks conceived by cronies of the regime of the day, of course, will maintain a silence over the Nellie massacre, the Bhagalpur and Kalupur riots, Operation Bluestar, the torching of Ananda Marg monks in Kolkata, the ethnic cleansing of Kashmir valley, the genocide against Kashmiri Pandits, the insidious spread of Islamic fanaticism and similar acts of omission and commission committed by the Congress and its Communist allies. Connection with "real life situations" indeed!</b>
This vile mischief must be nipped in the bud before it is too late. We cannot allow classrooms to be converted into party propaganda centres; that may have been fashionable in the USSR, but in democratic India it is unacceptable. This paper has repeatedly asserted that the writing of history and textbooks should be taken out of the vicious control of Government and left to qualified academicians with unimpeachable credentials. Till such time this is done, charlatans who are dependent on Government largesse and political patronage shall continue to poison the minds of our children, denying them the right to think freely and to choose fact over fiction
Pioneer News Service | New Delhi
Centre orders probe into portrayal of freedom fighters as terrorists
The controversy over distortion of National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) textbooks saw a major uproar in the Rajya Sabha on Friday forcing the Government to order an inquiry into portrayal of country's legendary freedom fighters as terrorists and inclusion of other objectionable issues.
With the NCERT already in the eye of a storm over inclusion of several communally sensitive issues like Babri demolition, Sikh riots and Gujarat riots, the Government was placed on the back foot by the combined Opposition.
The issue rocked the upper House when the BJP-led Opposition strongly protested against alleged distortions and objectionable language in the NCERT school textbooks.
The Left and the Samajwadi Party and even some Congress members also backed the demand for a probe.
"This is a very urgent matter and I request the Government to conduct a probe into how these books have come about. This requires immediate action," said CPI(M)'s Sitaram Yechury .
Sensing the mood of the House, the Government assured the Elders that the Ministry would examine the issue and do the needful.
The House saw uproar when Ravi Shankar Prasad (BJP) read out portions from the NCERT books which carried objectionable language and describing freedom fighters like Bal Gangadhar Tilak as "terrorists."
"Bipin Chandra's book was reintroduced and revised. The book accuses Jats of robbery. What's worse, it calls Lok Manya Tilak, Arvindo Ghosh and Bipin Chandra Pal terrorists," said Prasad.
Almost the entire Opposition demanded a probe and immediate action against the writer of the books, which according to them, were included in the syllabus this year. The BJP members walked into the well of the House seeking permission to submit the books to the Chair.
Deputy Chairman K Rehman Khan denied the permission to table the books and said it was against the rules and urged the agitated members to go back to their seats. The House then saw sharp exchanges between the BJP and treasury benches with the Congress members countering the charge initially claiming that it was unlikely that such books were part of the school curriculum.
The treasury benches later came around to the Opposition view that the matter was serious and Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Suresh Pachauri assured the House that he would convey the sentiments of the members to the concerned ministry.
Prasad said the books also contained derogatory references to various communities and castes and obscene language besides suggestions to girl students to use cosmetics and that education and merit alone did not ensure progress in life.
He said the books allegedly termed Jat community as marauders and disparaging depiction of some other castes, adding it would pollute the minds of impressionable minds. The deputy chairman expressed concern over this and said the matter was serious.
Amidst the din, Satyavrat Chaturvedi (Congress) said if these allegations were true, the Government should look into it. Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh aired similar views and asked the Government to take suitable action against the guilty people and Sitaram Yechury agreed with this suggestion.
Seeking a probe into the alleged distortions, Abani Roy (RSP) said such books should be banned and Vijay Darda (Congress) said the distortion should be set right and an inquiry ordered to find out who had done such a thing. The din died down when Pachauri assured the members that the Government will take the matter seriously.
Another important issue to come up in the Zero Hour was the alleged irregularities in the evaluation of answer sheets of students of Chaudhary Charan Singh University, Meerut. The matter was raised by Alka Balram Kshatriya (Congress) and Sushma Swaraj (BJP) and they expressed concern over school students examining answer papers of graduation and post- graduation students of Chaudhary Charan Singh University and demanded action by the University Grants Commission.
------
Mischief afoot
The Pioneer Edit Desk
Propaganda as textbooks
In the guise of "connecting knowledge with real life situations", propagandists of the Congress masquerading as academicians are planning to feed young, impressionable minds with monumental lies by including them in NCERT textbooks. It is amazing that Mr Yogendra Yadav, a self-proclaimed psephologist who is seen more on television channels unabashedly plumbing for the Congress and the Left or pushing the case of caste over merit, and whose academic credentials would impress only his political benefactors like Union Human Resource Development Minister Arjun Singh, has been assigned the task of 'chief adviser' to the panel that is responsible for re-writing NCERT textbooks, thus putting a big question mark over the future of education in this country. Given the fact that a person of such dubious repute shall lay down the guidelines, it is not surprising that children will be fed with Congress-sanitised versions of what Mr Yadav has the audacity to describe as the "truth" about the 2004 riot in Gujarat, the Ayodhya dispute and the 1984 pogrom against Sikhs. We can take it for granted that what will appear in print in political science textbooks will be no different from the contents of Congress or CPI(M) pamphlets that paint the BJP in the bleakest of colours while celebrating recalcitrant Islamism; we can also be sure that what our children will be told about the horrendous massacre of Sikhs by mobs encouraged, if not led, by Congress leaders after Indira Gandhi's assassination shall be more than a shade different from the truth. Nor should we have any doubts about the wondrous things that will be listed as "achievements" of Mrs Gandhi's Emergency that saw the ruthless suppression of civil liberties and democratic rights. After all, as Mr Yadav has explained, the material for these events will be culled from Government sources - in other words, from Congress propaganda archives. To add a touch of authenticity, Mr Yadav and his cohorts will cite from the perverse report on the Godhra carnage prepared by Justice Banerjee at the behest of Mr Lalu Prasad Yadav which was used as publicity material along with posters of the RJD's first couple to woo Muslim voters during last year's Bihar Assembly election. <b>The textbooks conceived by cronies of the regime of the day, of course, will maintain a silence over the Nellie massacre, the Bhagalpur and Kalupur riots, Operation Bluestar, the torching of Ananda Marg monks in Kolkata, the ethnic cleansing of Kashmir valley, the genocide against Kashmiri Pandits, the insidious spread of Islamic fanaticism and similar acts of omission and commission committed by the Congress and its Communist allies. Connection with "real life situations" indeed!</b>
This vile mischief must be nipped in the bud before it is too late. We cannot allow classrooms to be converted into party propaganda centres; that may have been fashionable in the USSR, but in democratic India it is unacceptable. This paper has repeatedly asserted that the writing of history and textbooks should be taken out of the vicious control of Government and left to qualified academicians with unimpeachable credentials. Till such time this is done, charlatans who are dependent on Government largesse and political patronage shall continue to poison the minds of our children, denying them the right to think freely and to choose fact over fiction