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School, college textbooks to have story of Emergency: Javdekar
Dubbing the Emergency as a “black spot” on democracy, Union HRD minister Prakash Javadekar on Tuesday said that his ministry is working to make necessary changes in the syllabus to include the “whole story” of Emergency in school and college textbooks
Dubbing the Emergency as a “black spot” on democracy, Union HRD minister Prakash Javadekar on Tuesday said that his ministry is working to make necessary changes in the syllabus to include the “whole story” of Emergency in school and college textbooks.
“Students should know about this dark chapter in India’s history, which was nothing but a second freedom struggle. The content will be about why and how the Emergency was imposed and the subsequent struggle. The content will be finalised by educationists,” he said.
The minister, however, did not give any timeframe for the inclusion of the chapters in the textbooks.
Recounting the Emergency days, Javadekar said it was one person’s greed for power that resulted in thousands being jailed and countless atrocities being committed, be it forced vasectomy or demolition of slums. “The younger generation doesn’t know that the Emergency in 1975 was imposed by the Congress to protect their power and throne,” he said.
He hit out at the Congress, saying while the BJP stood for the country first, party next and self last, the grand old party’s principle was “self first, next and last.”
Speaking on rebel MLA Ghanshyam Tiwari’s outburst that there was an undeclared emergency in the country, Javdekar said that he did not agree with Tiwari, who was dejected and was, therefore, making such allegations.
On the delay in the appointment of state BJP president, Javdekar said the announcement will be made soon.
Replying to a query, Javdekar said the fact that journalists nowadays can ask any question shows that there is no restriction and the present generation doesn’t know how the media was muzzled during the Emergency. “Today we have RTI, provision to file PILs, right to file complaints if there is an issue with service delivery. These are also signs of a vibrant democracy,” he said.
Javdekar denied that BJP was on the back foot after results of the Karnataka elections were declared and said that the BJP had been winning state after state after coming to power in 2014.
On recent directive on Madrassas, he said it was not mandatory and only those Madrassas which want government aid will have to give their details like every other school receiving government aid does.
Acting state BJP president Ashok Parnami, state education minister Vasudev Devnani and state higher education minister Kiran Maheshwari were among those present on the occasion.
