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Chapter of Sufi saint won’t be deleted from Class 9 textbook, assures Omar
Several leaders have flagged the issue blaming the Board of School Education (BOSE) for dropping the chapter on famous Sufi saint Sheikh ul Alam
J&K chief minister Omar Abdullah on Thursday asserted that the chapter on famous Sufi saint Sheikh-ul-Alam from the Class 9 textbook will not be deleted and said matter has been taken up with the education minister.
Several leaders have flagged the issue blaming the Board of School Education (BOSE) for dropping the chapter on famous Sufi saint Sheikh ul Alam. “I assure @tarigami Sb that there will be no deletion of the chapter. The matter has already been taken up by @sakinaitoo sahiba as soon as this was brought to the attention of the government,” J&K CM Omar Abdullah wrote on X in response to Kulgam legislator and CPI(M) general secretary Mohammad Yusuf Tarigami who had sought his intervention on this issue.
“It is deeply troubling that an entire chapter on the revered Sufi saint Sheikh-ul-Alam has been dropped from the Class 9 textbook. This blue-pencilling, carried out prior to the assembly polls, is unacceptable to a society rooted in rich Sufi traditions. I urge chief minister@OmarAbdullah to intervene and ensure that this crucial chapter is reinstated, thereby preserving and honouring our rich cultural and Sufi heritage,” Tarigami wrote on X.
Earlier, Peoples Conference (PC) chairman and legislator Sajjad Lone had also criticised BOSE for dropping the chapter.
“BOSE has removed a chapter based on the saintly life of the greatly revered saint of Kashmir Sheikh Noor -U- Din Wali, from textbooks of Class 9. We have all revered him and people irrespective of religion hold him in highest esteem. This is pure cultural terrorism. It is an assault on our culture and ethos. I as a Kashmiri strongly condemn it. More than anytime in the past, the current times are smudged with violence, greed and hatred. In these times our great Saint is a beacon of hope and role model for emulation. And for the BOSE removers — Our great Saint and his Saintly ways were etched in our hearts and minds much before BOSE came into existence,” Sajjad Lone wrote on X.
