Why none questioned 2016 ‘gross distortions’: Ashoka

The BJP was the principal opposition party in Karnataka between 2013-18 but had not raised any objection to the changes in school textbooks.

The BJP on Thursday demanded to know why writers and literary personalities in Karnataka did not object to “gross distortions” and “over 150 mistakes” made by the Prof Baraguru Ramchandrappa-led school textbook review committee in 2016.

The BJP on Thursday demanded to know why writers and literary personalities in Karnataka did not object to “gross distortions” and “over 150 mistakes” made by the Prof Baraguru Ramchandrappa-led school textbook review committee in 2016. (ANI)

“Now, I am questioning those who are raising the issue, the literary personalities... when the Siddaramaiah government was there, there were many historical personalities such as Kuvempu and Kempe Gowda who were dropped from the school textbooks. Why did they not raise their objections then?” R Ashoka, Karnataka’s minister for revenue, said on Thursday.

The BJP government targeted the Congress, the principal political opposition, for raising the objections on the Rohit Chakrathirtha-led revision committee that has come under heavy fire from all quarter in Karnataka and beyond for the alleged distortion of history, exclusion of historical personalities, demeaning references and normalising personalities such as Dr BR Ambedkar and his contributions among other charges.

The BJP was the principal opposition party in Karnataka between 2013-18 but had not raised any objection to the changes in school textbooks. The BJP is now forced to do so in order to deflect attention away from the controversy surrounding the issue, analysts said.

The textbook row continues to rage on in Karnataka with eminent writers, literary figures, influential seers and activists targeting the Basavaraj Bommai-led state government for trying to “saffronise” school textbooks, removing contributions from Dalit and backward class writers, replacing them with those by Brahmins and ideologues of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the ideological parent of the BJP.

Priyank Kharge, former minister and Congress legislator, said several chapters will have to be condensed into a brief which piques interest in children, improves their scientific mindset and temperament and not try to put every detail of history in the textbooks.

“If this is the case, you have to give Encyclopaedias to children. Learning things in brief is the idea of a textbook. Now to write about slave dynasty, we cannot write 200-300 years of history. Can we wish off the Battle of Plassey, Battle of Panipat no matter who fought it,” Kharge said.