Can't hide behind our names: Advisors reply to NCERT's 'out of question' statement

AS NCERT said there is no individual author of its textbooks, Yogendra Yadav and Suhas Palshikar asked why their names were there in the letter to the students.

The fresh row over NCERT Political Science books continued on Saturday after the NCERT replied to Yogendra Yadav and Suhas Palshikar following their statement that they were embarrassed to be associated with the 'mutilated' textbook. As NCERT, in its reply, said there was no individual author of its books and therefore there was no question of any individual withdrawal of association, Yogendra Yadav and Palshikar issued another statement saying the NCERT can't hide behind their names.

Yogendra Yadav and Suhas Palshikar issued a fresh statement on the NCERT row.

Yogendra Yadav and Suhas Palshikar said their names are mentioned in the book in the signed letter to students where the book is introduced. "How can we b forced to introduce a textbook that we no longer recognise?" the latest reply said.

What NCERT said on Yogendra Yadav and Suhas Palshikar's objection

NCERT said the chief advisor, advisor, member and member-coordinator of the textbook development committees advised how to design and develop the textbooks or contributed to the development of their contents and 'not beyond this'.

"Textbooks at the school level are developed based on the state of our knowledge and understanding on a given subject. Therefore, at no stage, individual authorship is claimed, hence the withdrawal of association by anyone is out of question," it said.

The NCERT said the term of the committees ended since the date of the first publication, but their names have been retained to acknowledge their contribution.

'But we do not approve the present version'

In a joint statement, Yadav and Palshikar said NCERT may have legal authority to modify its textbooks, but then the advisors too have "moral and legal right to dissociate" their names from a textbook that they do not endorse.

"If the name of the Textbook Development Committee is there to acknowledge our contribution, as the NCERT claims, then we must be free to decline this generosity. If the names of this committee are reported as a matter of record, as claimed in this statement, then it must also be recorded that we do not approve of the present version. The continuation of our names inside the present version of the book creates a false impression of endorsement, and we have every right to dissociate with this insinuation," the new statement said.