NEW DELHI, 19 October — The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD)-led government in the eastern state of Bihar decided yesterday not to introduce the new school textbooks the national curriculum setter has released as it feels they propagate the Hindu revivalist ideology.
Minister of Secondary and Higher Education Ram Lakhan Ram said the state has decided not to introduce the National Council for Educational Research and Training (NCERT) textbooks as they were “doctored” to suit the political agenda of Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee’s Hindu extremist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
He said Chief Minister Rabri Devi’s government felt the new textbooks were the BJP’s tools to propagate its “Hindutva” ideology.
“The NCERT’s new textbooks are the first step to officially propagate the ideology of hate among schoolchildren. We will not allow this in Bihar,” Ram said.
Bihar has become the first state to announce that it will not introduce the new textbooks after opposition groups including the Congress, Communist Party of India (CPI), Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM), Samajwadi Party, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) Wednesday demanded the withdrawal of the NCERT books.
Former Union minister Ram Vilas Paswan yesterday also demanded immediate withdrawal of the new NCERT textbooks. “It is against the interest of the nation, it will only spread communal hatred among the new generation,” Paswan said.
The new history textbooks have received flak for omitting important facts such as Mahatma Gandhi’s 1948 assassination by a Hindu fundamentalist in the curriculum till Grade 11.
The NCERT released the new textbooks in Hindi and social sciences in September, six months after the current academic session began. The textbooks were released after the Supreme Court cleared the new syllabus under the National Curriculum Framework for School Education (NCFSE).
The court had stayed the release of the Hindi and social science textbooks while hearing a case alleging that the new curriculum promoted the Hindu revivalist ideology and that the Central Advisory Board on Education (CABE) had not been consulted before the changes were incorporated. The court ruled last month that CABE was a non-statutory body and it was not essential to consult it before making changes in the curriculum.
Ram said state-run schools in Bihar would continue with the old textbooks. He also said the state, which has remained free of communal trouble for over 13 years, plans to introduce new chapters in textbooks to promote communal harmony, national integration and unity among all sections of people.
