4 books with Modi govt’s policies to go from Rajasthan school syllabus

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Four textbooks being taught in senior secondary school detailing the Narendra Modi government’s policies will be discontinued from the syllabus in Rajasthan, state education minister Govind Singh Dotasra said on Wednesday.

The Ashok Gehlot-led Congress government in Rajasthan has made several changes to school textbooks for students following the state board since taking charge in the state. They relate to historical events and personalities and to decisions taken by the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government in its first term.

The changes were brought in on the recommendations made by the textbook review committee set up on February 13 this year.

One textbook each was included in Classes 9, 10, 11, and 12 of government schools by the previous Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the state glorifying the steps taken by the Centre, said Dotasra.

“Although the topics were not included as a part of the academic examination syllabus they were still taught to the students. The Modi’s government policies were extolled in these books. We do not feel that this teaching is of any benefit to the students. We, therefore, have taken a decision to discontinue these textbooks for the school curriculums of all the four classes,” he added.

The minister said no decision has been taken yet to replace discontinued textbooks with other textbooks with different content. He also denied topic related to Rajiv Gandhi or doing away with those related to former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee or freedom fighter VD Savarkar will be added to school textbooks.

“History cannot be distorted in any way. Every freedom fighter and revolutionary should be taught to students in order to let them know their history. Now if VD Savarkar had contributions in freedom struggles, it cannot be done away with in the school textbooks,” said Dotasra.

Dotasra said the facts introduced in the reviewed textbook have been researched and have proof.

The present government recently added the stories of Operation Vijay and Balakot airstrike along with Indian Air Force Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman in the school textbooks.

The BJP, however, said the Congress is practising a politics of malice by changing the syllabus.

“The citizens of India have embraced the nationalistic ideology and therefore the Congress government has become irrelevant. The people of the Congress party have been taking steps like changing the school syllabus because they are not able to deal with it,” the spokesperson of the BJP’s state unit Satish Poonia said.

“Everything the politicians of Congress do is to appease Sonia Gandhi and other top leaders of the Congress,” he said.

The Congress has accused the previous BJP government of saffronising schoolbooks by diminishing role of leaders associated with the Congress such as Jawaharlal Nehru and Mahatma Gandhi and eulogising leaders associated with the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) and the BJP.

The current dispensation has justified the changes saying it was an attempt to correct history “distorted by the Bharatiya Janata Party”.