Savarkar No Longer 'Veer' In Rajasthan School Textbooks, References To Demonetisation Removed
The word 'Jihad' has been removed from new textbooks in Rajasthan.
Jaipur, June 14: The Congress government in Rajasthan has made a slew of changes in school textbooks. In freshly-printed books for the Rajasthan Board of Secondary Education (RBSE), the government removed "Veer" tag given to Vinayak Damodar Savarkar and mentioned that he had called himself a "son of Portugal" in his mercy petition. The government also removed all references to demonetisation in Political Science subject for class 12 students.
In old textbooks, a chapter on freedom movement added "Veer" prefix in Savarkar's name and extensively discussed his contribution to India’s independence movement. The new textbooks omitted "Veer" and addressed him as "Vinayak Damodar Savarkar". The chapter now says Savarkar was subjected to torture by the British and wrote mercy petitions seeking his release. BJP Portrayed Veer Savarkar Strongly For Political Gains, Says Congress Minister.
After his release, Savarkar worked towards establishing India as a ‘Hindu nation’ and gave the call to ‘militarise Hinduodom’ (sic), the chapter says, as reported by The Indian Express. It further adds that he opposed the Quit India movement in 1942 and the creation of Pakistan in 1946. Rajasthan Government Announces Unemployment Allowance From March 1; Rs 3,000 For Men, Rs 3,500 For Women.
Demonetisation was mentioned as "Kale dhan ki Safai abhiyan" in the chapter Terrorism, Criminalisation of Politics & Corruption and Characteristics of Indian Foreign Policy & Non-alignment. The Congress government removed all the references to the note ban from the chapter.
The old books have mention of only Muslim organisations such as Jamaat-e-Islam, All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul and SIMI in the chapter titled 'Casteism and Communalism'. The government has now added Hindu Mahasabha in the list. The word 'Jihad' has been removed from new textbooks.
"We formed a committee of educationists and found mistakes in several such textbooks including cases where history was distorted and presented. We don’t have any political agenda in it. We made the changes according to the report of the committee. But during the previous BJP regime, they deliberately changed the NCERT syllabus to impose the ideology of the RSS and changed the textbooks which also amounted to the loss of hundreds of crores of rupees," Rajasthan Education Minister Govind Singh Dotasara was quoted as saying on changes made in textbooks.
BJP MLA and former Education Minister, Vasudev Devnani, flayed the Congress government for rewriting school textbooks. "I always say Krantikariyon ka apman, ye Congression ki hai pehchan (Congress people are identified by their habit of insulting revolutionaries). They have never let the history of revolutionaries come in the light. They serve only one family and they believe that Subhash Chandra Bose, Veer Savarkar, Dr. Rajendra Prasad, if the history of these people come out then the stature of Nehru and the Gandhi family will fall," he said.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jun 14, 2019 10:01 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).