Date 05.04.2023 –
Revoke the undemocratic and arbitrary changes made by NCERT in the text books of 10th and 12th standards – AIDSO
“It’s highly condemnable that the NCERT in tune with the divisive, communal & intolerant politics of BJP has arbitrarily resorted to changes in 10th and 12th standard History, Civics, Hindi and Political Science Textbooks. Thus a crime against rational thinking, culture & civilisation is being perpetrated” said AIDSO General Secretary, Sourav Ghosh in a statement issued to press.
Further he said, “It’s deplorable the central government has once again resorted to whimsically, unethical and undemocratic step, while implementing the anti-people National Education Policy 2020. The BJP-led Modi government has removed some chapters from the 10th and 12th standard books which contained the knowledge of our history including freedom movement, cultural heritage, diversity etc. In the new session of 2023-24, the texts titled ‘Democracy and Diversity’, ‘People’s Struggle and Movement’, ‘Challenges of Democracy’ in the book of Democratic Politics (Civics); ‘Mughal Rulers and their Darbar’, ‘Colonial City Partition’ from Indian History have been removed. Similarly, from Unit 3 and 5 of Part 3, the chapter titled ‘Colonial Cities’, ‘Partition’ will no longer be taught in Political Science. Contemporary chapters in 12th standard Civics: ‘The Cold War Era’, ‘The rise of mass movements from the politics of independent India’ and ‘The period of dominance of one party’ will no longer be taught. Some excerpts of Firaq Gorakhpuri’s Ghazals, Suryakant Tripathi Nirala’s Poems, ‘Charlie Chaplin yani hum sab’, Gajanan Madhav Muktibodh’s ‘Naye Janm ki Kundali’, Narendra Sharma’s ‘Neend Uchat Jati hai’ from Hindi textbooks in class 11, are also being removed.” Thus, the BJP government’s intolerance to the secular, democratic & inclusive ideas stands vindicated. To propagate its divisive & communal ideas, the central BJP using the school textbooks as a platform is a crime against civilisation,” said Sourav Ghosh. He said, “The BJP government is distorting history with a very heinous motive and a pre-planned conspiracy. One after another, Education is being attacked in a well-planned way. Now, the central government is meddling with the text books through NCERT, across the country. The government, evidently intends to create an irrational, robot like generation who would be unaware of its real literature, science and history. On the other hand, the feeling of disharmony is being incepted on the basis of caste, creed, religion etc. which is resulting in riots. In this scenario, the deliberate step of removing the progressive chapters under the policy of communalisation of education, by the government, will certainly give birth to the communal feelings and make way to the rivalries, not only among the common students but affect the entire society itself. This is an unacceptable attack on democratic and secular education. Hence, AIDSO appeals to the educationists, students, parents and common people to unite against these arbitrary changes in different textbooks, made by the central government, in order to save democratic, secular and scientific education.”
