E-Paper
Withdraw revised textbooks: Gowda
Gowda sais that in the revised textbooks, the photograph of Kuvempu was removed from a chapter on the unification of Karnataka, the contributions of Siddganga Matha under the late Sri Shivakumar Swamiji and Adichunchungiri have also been removed.
Bengaluru
Former prime minister and Janata Dal (Secular) supremo HD Deve Gowda on Tuesdy shot off a letter to chief minister Basavaraj Bommai, demanding the withdrawal of school textbooks revised recently by the Rohith Chakrathirtha committee appointed by the Bharatiya Janata Party government in the state.
“The person named as the school textbook revision committee has insulted Rashtrakavi Kuvempu,” Gowda said, referring to the 2017 post by Chakrathirtha who had posted a distorted version of the state anthem or ‘Nada Geethe’.
Gowda added that it was a mistake to appoint such a person as the chairperson of the revision committee.
The statements come at a time when there have been protests by activists, writers and influential seers from various communities who have threatened to agitate against the BJP government.
“The innumerable number of mistakes and injustices in the textbooks cannot be resolved by issuing corrigendum or by correcting specific pages. Therefore, I feel that all textbooks from the new revision committee should be withdrawn and the previous textbooks that were revised by 27 committees working under the leadership of Baraguru Ramachandrappa must be utilised for the current academic year,” Gowda wrote.
The former prime minister added that in the revised textbooks, the photograph of Kuvempu was removed from a chapter on the unification of Karnataka, the contributions of Siddganga Matha under the late Sri Shivakumar Swamiji and Adichunchungiri have also been removed. Gowda also objected to the removal of the term “Samvidhana Shilpi” or sculptor of the constitution to refer to Dr BR Ambedkar.
Bommai on Tuesday said that he will respond to Gowda’s letter.
“I will have a meeting with heads of the education department and the education Minister tomorrow where the former prime minister’s letter will be discussed. His suggestions would be considered seriously and we will decide on whatever possible measures that could be taken,” Bommai said.
The chief minister acknowledged the mistakes in the textbooks and added that some of these errors were from earlier revision committees.
“Not just in the textbooks prepared by the Rohith Chakrathirtha, there were mistakes in lesson on Basavanna in the textbooks prepared by the previous committees too headed by Prof. Baraguru Ramachandrappa and Prof. Mudambadithaya, according to Saanehalli Sri Panditharadhya Shivacharya Swamiji,” Bommai said.
The seer, like several others, had written to the chief minister to take corrective action.
“There are many mistakes in the lesson on Basavanna in the Social Sciences Part 1 textbook of 9th standard brought out by the committee headed by Rohith Chakrathirtha. Earlier Baraguru Ramachandrappa and Prof. GS Mudambadithaya had headed the textbook review committees. The Mudambadithaya committee had included many aspects which were slanderous to Basava philosophy in the text. The Baraguru Ramachandrappa committee had drastically changed it,” the seer has stated, adding that the new textbooks should be dropped.
