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‘Congress’ aim is to politicise…': Karnataka education minister on textbook row
The textbook controversy began when a speech by RSS founder Keshav Baliram Hedgewar was reported to have been included in school textbooks, while a lesson on freedom fighter Bhagat Singh was allegedly omitted.
Karnataka education minister BC Nagesh hit out at the Congress over the ongoing textbook row. According to the minister, the Congress party's aim is to “politicize the textbook issue for the elections”. The education minister said that the Congress has been teaching “false things” to students. “Their (Congress) aim is not the textbook, but to politicise the issue for elections. For the last 65 years, they were teaching false things to the students. Congress, every day, is coming down. Whatever false agenda they have given to the people, it is coming out now,” he told news agency ANI.
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The textbook controversy began when a speech by RSS founder Keshav Baliram Hedgewar was reported to have been included in school textbooks, while a lesson on freedom fighter Bhagat Singh was allegedly omitted. There were claims that other works by renaissance literary figures including A N Murthi Rao's 'Vyaghrageethe,' P Lankesh's 'Mruga Mattu Sundari,' and Sara Aboobacker’s 'Yuddha' were also omitted from the textbooks.
Since the controversy erupted, several writers have withdrawn their consent to use portions of their writing in school textbooks in protest against the alleged "saffronisation".
Amid this, a political row erupted and is intensifying as BJP was accused of trying to “distort” history by excluding the names and prominence of personalities like Bhagat Singh, Narayana Guru, Basavanna, and Kuvempu among others.
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Congress leader DK Shivakumar slammed the ruling government, and said, “We have always viewed these great people with respect but in these textbooks, there is an attempt to portray them as ordinary."
On Friday, Karnataka chief minister Basavaraj Bommai disbanded the school textbook revision committee under Rohit Chakratheertha that had implemented the changes. In the order, the state government said that it has an "open mind regarding revision of objectionable elements" in textbooks and that a decision has been made to appropriately revise the issues related to Basvaranna.
(With inputs from ANI)
