SGPC forms sub-committee on deletion of Sikh history; report in 2 days

Union cabinet minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal called decision of the Punjab government to remove chapters of Sikh history from Class-12 text book “shameful”.

The Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) has set up a sub-committee to conduct a probe into the deletion of chapters of Sikh history from Class-12 text book that the Punjab School Education Board prescribes.

Sukhbir Singh Badal (right) wants Punjab chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh to produce a copy of the Class-11 textbook to which several chapters on Sikh history have been shifted from the older Class-12 book. (HT File)

“The matter is serious. The sub-committee will submit a report in two days,” said SGPC spokesperson Diljit Singh Bedi. Those on the panel are SGPC member from Chandigarh Harjinder Kaur; member from Anandpur Sahib, Surinder Singh; SGPC secretary (education) Avtar Singh, Guru Nanak College for Girls, Muktsar, principal Tejinder Kaur Dhaliwal and assistant secretary (Dharam Parchar) Simarjit Singh. SGPC education director Jatinder Singh Sidhu will be the coordinator.

“The committee will meet on Wednesday at Panth Rattan Jathedar Gurcharan Singh Tohra Institute, Patiala,” Bedi said, adding that another sub-committee on the issue of pilgrim Kiran Bala will meet on Thursday.

CM’s act shameful, claims Harsimrat

Ludhiana Union cabinet minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal has called the decision of the Punjab government to remove chapters of Sikh history from Class-12 text book as shameful.

In the city as the chief guest at the convocation of Guru Nanak Dev Engineering College, she told HT, “Can you imagine a chief minister of Punjab removing Sikh history? Who is going to promote Sikhism then? This is shameful. Either the CM is misled or he is lying, totally to save himself.”

She added, “On opening the book, the preface says that we are grateful to education secretary, Krishan Kumar. They (this government) appointed Kumar. How are they saying that the Akalis did it?”

“No issues were raised on the book from 2013-16. Why is there the hue and cry now? That’s because they (the Congress government) has removed chapters on Sikh history altogether. Sikh history is taught from Class-5. After cutting out portions of this, they are saying it that this was decided during the tenure of the Akalis. It is absurd,” she claimed.

PSEB out to dent Sikh history, say Sikh intellectuals

Several Sikh intellectuals and academicians on Tuesday accused the Punjab School Education Board (PSEB) of presenting the Sikh history and culture in new textbooks for Classes 11 and 12 from ultra-Hindu nationalistic perspective. Demanding immediate replacement of new textbooks with those “carrying comprehensive and unadulterated Sikh annals”, the intellectuals, who assembled at the call of ‘Sikh Vichaar Manch’, said the board should reconstitute an ‘expert committee’ with overwhelming presence of Sikh historians to recast the history syllabus for senior secondary classes.

Those who attended the meeting included former IAS officers Gurtej Singh and Kulbir Singh, historian Prof Gurdashan Singh Dhillon, journalists Karamjit Singh, Jaspal Singh Sidhu, Gurpreet Singh of Kendri Singh Sabha and Akali activist Jaswinder Singh Rajpura. They also adopted a resolution accusing the erstwhile SAD-BJP government of initiating a project of ‘saffornising’ the Sikh history on the pretext of reshaping history syllabus as per NCERT guidelines.

“Instead of exposing the hidden agenda of the previous government pertaining to the distortion of the Sikh history, the Congress has rather lent support to that agenda by saying the latter only implemented the project started by its predecessor,” they said.